Resident demands action on Dadlani’s ‘Monkery’ tweet

MUMBAI: A Chembur resident and his three friends have asked the police to take action against Bollywood music composer and singer Vishal Dadlani and Congress supporter

MUMBAI: A Chembur resident and his three friends have asked the police to take action against Bollywood music composer and singer Vishal Dadlani and Congress supporter Tehseen Poonawalla for “hurting religious sentiments of the Jain community.”

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Kushal Mehra and his friends have submitted an application with the Chembur police, who are reviewing it. These four people do to not belong to the Jain community. “Poonawala and Dadlani have, on social networking site Twitter, posted derogatory comments about Jain monk Tarun Sagar. Saints of Digambar sect of Jainism don’t wear clothes as part of their religious practice and both of them have targeted the Jain communities’ religious beliefs in their tweets and thus have deeply hurt their religious sentiments,” read the application to the senior police inspector of Chembur police station adding that such act of hatred against Jain minority community will create law and order problems.

The application further adds, “I would like to bring to your attention the fact that as per section 153 (a) and 295 (a) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), their tweets are deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of Jain community by insulting its religion and religious beliefs which are punishable with imprisonment up to three years.”

Tarun Sagar addressed the Haryana assembly on Friday. Monks in Digambara (Sanskrit for sky-clad) sect of Jainism do not wear clothes — a symbol of shunning worldly possessions and indifference to earthly emotions such as shame. The monk sat on a dias and spoke about the relation between ‘dharma’ and politics, terrorism and female foeticide.

A day later, Dadlani described Tarun Sagar’s speech as “monkery”. Though he later deleted the tweet, but came under widespread attack from members of the Jain community.

At the time of copy going to the press, cops were yet to register a complaint in this matter. Speaking to HT, Shahji Umap, deputy commissioner of police (Zone 6), said, “We are seeking legal opinion.”