ANOTHER TEAM of Uttar Pradesh police arrived in Mumbai on Thursday to investigate into a case against makers of web series Mirzapur. On Wednesday, a team from Lucknow had landed in Mumbai to probe a case registered against makers of Tandav.
Senior officials from the Mumbai Police said UP police approached officials from the Bandra police station on Thursday, seeking help with the investigation into the FIR registered at Kotwali Dehat police station of Mirzapur.
The FIR was registered on a complaint lodged by Arvind Chaturvedi, who alleged that the show “has hurt his religious sentiments”. The complainant has also said the show promoted social enmity, showcased abusive content and presented the district in poor light and even showed illicit relations on screen.
The FIR has named show producers Ritesh Sidhwani, Farhan Akhtar and Bhaumik Gondaliya under sections 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the IPC along with sections of the Information Technology Act.
A senior official from the Mumbai Police said they will cooperate with the UP police. “They need help in getting office and residential addresses of persons named in the FIR and we have helped them with that,” an officer said.
The team from Lucknow, meanwhile, is set to leave for UP on Friday as it could not find anyone affiliated with Tandav. Inspector Anil Kumar Singh said, “We went to the residential addresses of director Ali Abbas Zafar and writer Gaurav Solanki in Andheri (West), but they were not at home. While we even visited producer Himanshu Mehra’s office address in Andheri, it seems that he vacated that office two years ago.”
Officials said as the UP police could not find them, they were unable to serve notices to them. Singh further added that they will start their journey for UP on Friday.