New Delhi:
The ongoing Padmavati row took an ugly turn on Friday when a man's body was found hanging in Rajasthan’s Nahargarh Fort, 20 km near Jaipur, with slogans against the movie scribbled on stones nearby.
One of the slogans read ‘Padmavati ka virodh (Opposing Padmavati), while another read ‘Hum putle nahi jalate, latkate hain’ (we don’t burn effigies, we kill).
The matter is being investigated by officers from the Brahmapuri Police Station. The deceased has been identified as Chetan. A plastic wire was found near Chetan's body. Police is not ruling out murder.
Mahipal Singh Makrana, a member of the Rajput Karni Sena which has been spearheading the Padmavati protest, said his outfit did not have anything to do with the latest development.
“This is not our way of protest. I want to tell people not to resort to such methods,” Makrana said. His outfit had last week threatened to chop off Deepika Padukone’s nose “just as Soorpanakha’s nose was chopped off”.
Meanwhile, the Delhi HC has rejected the plea for an expert panel on Padmavati, as Karni Sena members burnt director Bhansali's effigy in the national capital.
Rajput groups in Rajasthan have staged massive protests against the movie for apparently distorting historical facts. The protests have been supported by several state governments controlled by the Bharatiya Janata Party.
