Reportedly, Faruqui and Nalin Yadav are in judicial remand and lodged in Indore Central Jail. A magistrate”s court and a sessions court rejected their bail pleas, following which they moved the high court.
“The evidence/material collected so far, suggest that in an organized public show under the garb of standup comedy at a public place on commercial lines, prima facie; scurrilous, disparaging utterances, outraging religious feelings of a class of citizens of India with deliberate intendment, were made by the applicant,” said the court order.
The High Court noted allegations in the complaint that Mr. Faruqui and the other comics were “allegedly making outraging filthy jokes in social media deliberately against Hindu Gods, Lord Shriram, and Goddess Seeta hurting religious sentiments of Hindus for the last 18 months despite protest on various social media platforms”. There was “nothing on record to the contrary”, the judge said.
A few names of the Indian entertainment industry including, and others have expressed disappointment over the Madhya Pradesh High Court”s decision that turned down the bail plea of comedian Munawar Faruqui.
