1 week Ago
The Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) has stayed the notices issued to actor Raveena Tandon and filmmaker Farah Khan among others to join investigation in connection with an FIR registered by the Ajnala police in Amritsar on December 25, 2019, for allegedly hurting religious sentiments. Others roped in as accused were comedian Bharti Singh, screenplay writer Abbas Ajij Dalal and Frames Production Company Private Limited. Four FIRs were registered against them in 2019-2020 at different places in Punjab for allegedly hurting religious sentiments.
The first FIR was registered on December 25, 2019 in Ajnala, the Ferozepur FIR was registered on December 28, Gurdaspur FIR on December 30, and Ropar FIR on January 3, 2020. As per one of the counsels, Abhinav Sood, Farah Khan hosted a show named “Backbenchers” in December that year wherein she invited celebrities. Allegations were that during one such show, these accused persons hurt religious sentiments of the Christian community.
As per the pleas in high court filed seeking quashing of these FIRs, Tandon and Bharti Singh were asked to spell a word and to explain its meaning. While Tandon spelt it correctly, Bharti Singh misspelt it. It apparently meant that Bharti Singh did not know the word and was referring to another word in Hindi, as per the plea.
The allegations were “unjustified, false and incorrect” as there was nothing that could lead to the presumption that the act was intended to hurt the religious sentiments of a community since it was not a deliberate act from them, the pleas argued. In view of this, none of the ingredients of the alleged offence under Section 295-A of hurting the religious sentiments is made out against the accused persons, the pleas added. Following their petitions, the high court had stayed their arrest in these FIRs on different dates.
However, earlier this month, three different notices were received by these actors to join investigation, which now stand stayed in view of high court order. The case will now be taken up for hearing on July 14, Sood added..
