Tandav makers, artistes booked in Greater Noida, face SC/ST Act

NOIDA: An FIR was lodged late Monday night against the makers and artists of Amazon’s web series “Tandav” at the Rabupura police station in Greater Noida. This is the third such case to be lodged in UP. Earlier, FIRs were registered in Lucknow and Shahjahanpur as well.
The complaint was filed by Rabupura resident Balbir Azad, who was earlier associated with the BSP and had held the post of its district in-charge during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.The FIR claimed the series adversely impacted the image of UP police and portrayed Hindu deities in an indecent manner. It also alleged adverse portrayal of a character playing the Prime Minister in the political drama.
Amazon did not comment when contacted for a response.
The seven people named in the FIR include series director Ali Abbas Zafar, Amazon Prime’s India head Aparna Purohit, producer Himanshu Kishan Mehra, writer Gaurav Solanki and actors Saif Ali Khan, Dimple Kapadia and Sunil Grover. They have been booked under IPC sections 153-a (promoting enmity between groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class), 505 (1) (b) (intent to cause fear whereby a person may be induced to commit an offence against the state or public tranquillity), 505 (2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes) and 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation), apart from relevant sections of the IT Act and the SC/ST Act.
DCP (Greater Noida) Rajesh Kumar Singh said as the SC/ST Act had been invoked, the case would be investigated by a gazetted officer.
Azad said he is a Dalit and was ‘hurt’ by the content of the series. “There are references to a particular caste. In the future, no one should be able to create unpleasantness,” he added.