The Hyderabad police on Friday said they will soon register a criminal case against filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma for his alleged derogatory comments against the NDA nominee for Presidential elections Droupadi Murmu, who filed her nomination papers in New Delhi later in the day.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader from Telangana G Narayan Reddy has lodged a complaint with the Abids police station claiming that the director had posted a derogatory remark about Droupadi Murmu, the Presidential nominee of the NDA, on social media platform Twitter.
“We have received the complaint and sent the same for a legal opinion. After we receive the legal opinion, we shall book a case against Varma under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act,” Abids police inspector B Prasada Rao told HT.
“If DRAUPADI is the PRESIDENT who are the PANDAVAS? And more importantly, who are the KAURAVAS?” Varma had tweeted.
In his complaint, Reddy said Varma’s comments on Twitter were highly derogatory and humiliating for a senior lady politician and former Governor of Jharkhand. The BJP leader submitted the tweet as evidence to the police along with the complaint.
He demanded that the police should register a case under the SC/ST Act and requested that the director be severely punished. The police said necessary action will be taken after a legal opinion emerged.
{{/usCountry}}He demanded that the police should register a case under the SC/ST Act and requested that the director be severely punished. The police said necessary action will be taken after a legal opinion emerged.
{{/usCountry}}BJP MLA from Goshamahal T Raja Singh also expressed his annoyance at Ram Gopal Varma for making such comments against the NDA’s Presidential nominee.
Raja Singh said the director tweets in a drunken condition. “Varma always tries to be in the news by making such controversial comments,” he added.
Stating that such comments against Murmu were most unfortunate and unwarranted, Singh demanded that the police register a criminal case against Varma.
The filmmaker meanwhile said his Twitter post was “not at all intended to hurt the sentiments of anyone. This was said in irony and not intended in any other way. Draupadi in Mahabharata is my favourite character (sic) but since the name is such a rarity, I just remembered the associated characters and hence my expression. Not at all intended to hurt sentiments of anyone,” he tweeted.