Congress leader calls Vivek Agnihotri 'new maafiveer' in town, demands ‘Maafi Files’

Vivek Agnihotri tendered a written apology for his 2018 tweets and said he deleted those tweets on his own. The court was informed that some of the tweets were withheld by Twitter. The court asked for his in-person apology.

As filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri on Tuesday apologised to the Delhi high court for his 2018 tweets on Justice S Murlidhar over the granting bail to activist Gautam Navlakha, Congress leader Supriya Shrinate termed him as the 'new maafiveer in town' and demanded one 'Maafi files' on the lines of The Kashmir Files, without naming the filmmaker in her stinging tweet. Critics of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar call him 'maafiveer' because of his mercy petition to the British.

Congress ups attacks on Vivek Agnihotri and claimed he lied in the court that he deleted the 2018 tweets. (PTI)

The filmmaker issued a written apology for the tweets to which the Delhi high court asked his lawyer whether he had any difficulty in appearing before the court in person. His lawyer submitted that in his affidavit Vivek Agnihotri tendered an unconditional apology and also stated that he deleted the tweets against the judge. The amicus curiae informed the court that the submission was wrong and it was Twitter which deleted this tweet.

"Nafrati chintu lied in the court also that he deleted the tweet," Supriya Shrinate tweeted.

What were the 2018 tweets about?

In 2018, Vivek Agnihotri posted a series of tweets accusing Justice S Muralidhar of bias after he granted bail to Gautam Navlakha. Justice Muralidhar was then a sitting judge of the Delhi high court and is currently the Chief Justice of the Orissa high court. Contempt of court proceedings was initiated against the director. Agnihotri later deleted some tweets while others on the thread were withheld.

Vivek Agnihotri has been in the news in recent times because of a fresh controversy over his film The Kashmir Files. At the film festival in Goa, Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid said The Kashmir Files is a vulgar and propaganda movie. The comment opened a flurry of attacks and counter-attacks on the issue.