New Delhi:
An FIR was lodged against nearly 50 celebrities, including Anurag Kashyap, Ramchandra Guha, Mani Ratnam and Aparna Sen, who had written an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi raising concern over the growing incidents of mob lynching, police said. The case was lodged after an order was passed by Chief Judicial Magistrate Surya Kant Tiwari two months ago on a petition filed by local advocate Sudhir Kumar Ojha.
"The CJM had passed the order on August 20, accepting my petition upon the receipt of which an FIR was lodged today at the Sadar police station here," Ojha said.
He said nearly 50 signatories of the letter were named as accused in his petition in which they allegedly "tarnished the image of the country and undermined the impressive performance of the prime minister" besides "supporting secessionist tendencies".
Earlier, as many as 49 renowned film actors and directors wrote to a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing concern over growing lynching cases. Letter signed by social activists, filmmakers and artists like Adoor Gopalkrishnan, Mani Ratnam, Anurag Kashyap, Binayak Sen, Soumitro Chatterjee, Aparna Sen states: "Ram is sacred for the majority community, stop defiling the name of Ram."
The celebrities had said, "Over 254 religious identity-based hate crimes. 840 incidents of atrocities against the Dalits. Dear Prime Minister, what action has been taken?"
"The lynching of Muslims, Dalits and other minorities must be stopped immediately. We were shocked to learn from the NCRB that there have been no less than 840 instances of atrocities against Dalits in the year 2016, and a definite decline in the percentage of convictions," the letter reads.
The letter dated July 23, writes, "You have criticised such lynchings in Parliament Mr. Prime Minister, but that is not enough! What action has actually been taken against the perpetrators?"
"Regrettably "Jai Shri Ram" has become a provocative "war cry" today that leads to law and order problems, and many lynchings take place in its name," it added.
