RGV in legal tangle over ‘offensive’ tweets on Ganesha

A Jaipur resident lodged a criminal complainant against film director Ram Gopal Varma on Saturday after the Bollywood personality posted controversial tweets on Lord Ganesha.

A local resident lodged a criminal complainant against film director Ram Gopal Varma on Saturday after the Bollywood personality posted controversial tweets on Lord Ganesha.

HT Image

Gaurav Choudhary, an advocate, told HT, “Varma has made these irresponsible statements and he should be punished for it.”

Choudhary alleged that Varma had hurt sentiments of Hindus. The complaint was filed at Bajaj Nagar police station under various sections of the IPC for injuring or defiling place of worship, with intent to insult the religion of any class and promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and uttering words, etc., with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings.

The Jan Samasya Niwaran Manch supporters held a demonstration against Varma at Statue Circle and sought his arrest.

“The country will not tolerate such insults to Hindu gods. If no action is taken against Varma, we will intensify our agitation,” said the head of the Manch, Suraj Soni.

Varma had later apologized for his remarks on Twitter. “All tweets I put on Ganesha were in my usual manner but unintended by me to hurt anyone’s sentiments ... but if they did I sincerely apologize,” Varma said.