In Modi s India, comedians can now be jailed for intent to tell a joke - as Munawar Faruqi found out asiaone.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from asiaone.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Updated Feb 27, 2021 · 07:17 am File photo of the Madhya Pradesh High Court. | PTI
The Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court on Friday granted interim bail to Nalin Yadav and Sadakat Khan, who were arrested with comedian Munawar Faruqui, in relation to a case registered against them by the Indore Police for allegedly hurting religious sentiments,
Bar and Bench reported.
Justice Rohit Arya passed the order in light of the Supreme Court judgement on February 5, granting bail to Faruqui, according to
Bar and Bench. Then on February 12, bail was granted to two other co-accused in the case, Prakhar Vyas and Edwin Anthony. After Friday’s verdict, all accused who were put in custody on January 1, have been allowed bail.
Anubhooti Gupta
As 2021 dawned, stand-up comedian Munawar Faruqui was arrested from a club in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, for âmocking the deities of another religionâ and no one uttered a word about intolerance.
Faruqui was arrested by the Indore police after a complaint from Eklavya Goud, chief of Hindu Rakshak Sangathan and secretary of the state unit of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, the youth wing of Bharatiya Janata Party. He is the son of BJP MLA Malini Gaud.
Faruqui remained in jail for over a month, though the police had no evidence of his âcrimeâ. His bail plea was rejected two times, including by the Madhya Pradesh High Court, until he was granted bail on February 5 by the Supreme Court.
Comedian Munawar Faruqui was released from a jail in Indore late on Saturday, a day after being granted interim bail by the Supreme Court, PTI reported. Faruqui had been in jail since January 1 for allegedly insulting Hindu deities during a show.
Earlier in the day, the authorities at Indore Central Jail had refused to release Faruqui, saying that they had not received any official order for the same,
The Indian Express reported.
“We had earlier not received the order, however, a judge from the Supreme Court called up the chief judicial magistrate of Indore and asked him to check the website for the uploaded orders and in case it was already uploaded, to comply by it,” Indore Central Jail Superintendent Rajesh Bangde told the newspaper. “We checked the site and it was uploaded and hence he was released at 11 pm.”
New, Safe, Successful Jokes: A Serious Study February 7, 2021, 8:39 PM IST
Indrajit Hazra is Editor Views, Economic Times. His attempt to comment on everything under the sun has made him a social menace in certain social media circles.
A professional comedian is a person who is paid money to make people laugh. And in most cultures, including our own, professional comedians are expected to make their audiences laugh without administering them nitrous oxide or marijuana, tickling them, or threatening them to laugh on pain of death or any other sub-fatal threat.
That is the way it has been in cinema, radio and YouTube, in stand-up, sit-down and lie-back. And that is the way it shall be unless you get the Joke Police in.