What Did Ram Gopal Verma Say About Droupadi Murmu? Filmmaker Booked By Police

Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma landed in trouble after he put out a controversial tweet about Bharatiya Janta Party's Presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu.

So far two cases have been filed against him by the police over the tweet. On a complaint of a social worker, an FIR has been lodged against Varma in Hazratganj police station in Lucknow.

Before the FIR in Lucknow, a case was filed against him in Telangana.

What was Ram Gopal Varma Droupadi Murmu Tweet?

The social worker in Lucknow, Manoj Singh in his complaint mentioned the tweet by the filmmaker. Varma had written, "If Droupadi is the President who are the Pandavas? And more importantly, who are the Kauravas?"

Singh in his complaint mentioned, "The tweet is a deliberate attempt to vitiate the atmosphere which may lead to untoward incidents." Singh also added that the tweet hurts religious sentiments as it talks about a character of mythology Mahabharata in a "bad light" also that it eas "humiliating for a woman."

Raghvendra Mishra, the Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police ( ADCP), Central zone said on Tuesday that a case has been registered in the matter. He said, "Varma has been booked under sections 295 A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class), 501 (printing or engraving matter known to be defamatory), 504 (intentional insult), 505 1(b) (cause fear or alarm to the public), 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and also under relevant sections of the Information Technology Act."

He added, "A probe will be conducted and statements of the filmmaker will be taken." Ram Gopal Varma came up with a clarification. He wrote in another tweet, "This was said just in an earnest irony and not intended in any other way. Droupadi in Mahabharata is my favourite character 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."

Suggested Reading: Could Reading Of Religious Scriptures On Mokshada Ekadashi Perpetuate Misogyny?

In another case, the journalist who is the co-founder of fact-checking platform Alt News Mohammed Zubair was arrested in Delhi late on June 27 for a five year old tweet about a scene from a comedy film. The tweet was flagged by a twitter handle @balajikijaiin' this month, alleging that Mr Zubair had tweeted a "questionable" image to "deliberately insult the god of a particular religion", police said. Zubair had sent out that tweet in March 2018. The twitter handle which asked the police to take action against the journalist only had one tweet on his timeline and that was his complaint against Zubair. The journalist's arrest has been condemned by many quarters.