Calcutta High Court claims ‘lack of evidence’ to turn down petition against TMC supporter Nachiketa despite viral video of him abusing Lord Ram

The Calcutta High Court on Friday (19th September) dismissed a petition accusing Bengali singer, composer and musician Nachiketa Chakraborty of hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus by making objectionable remarks about Lord Ram during a live performance. The criminal revision petition filed before the High Court challenged the order of dismissal of the trial court for want of jurisdiction.

The petitioner contended before the High Court that the Learned Magistrate erred in law by failing to appreciate that the complaint against the singer was filed within the jurisdiction of the complainant’s place of residence. A single bench of Justice Ajay Kumar Gupta of the High Court, however, dismissed the petition, citing a lack of evidence. “This court endorses such findings of the Learned Magistrate because the petitioner failed to satisfy the learned court as well as this court, as regards the whereabouts of the alleged concert that was performed,” noted the High Court.

A complaint was filed by the Secretary of the Bishwa Hindu Parishad, before the Officer-in-Charge, Shyampukur Police Station, on May 5, 2023 and before the Deputy Commissioner of Police on May 10, 2023, alleging that “Nachiketa Chakraborty (a Bengali singer, composer and musician) during a live concert, tried to provoke the common people, particularly citizens of India and outraged the religious sentiments of the followers of Lord Ram” by making certain insulting remarks. However, the case was dismissed by the Learned Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Court – I.

Notably, a video of the said live performance went viral on social media, in which the singer, who is a TMC supporter, can be heard making objectionable remarks against Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya. He same the song before the inaguration of the Ram Mandir.

@AITCofficial Supporter singer #Nachiketa has composed and presented disrespectful and #blasphemous songs about Lord Ram Chandra and Loard Hanuman, day by day such heinous activities are increasing willingly for hurting Hindu faith. pic.twitter.com/kdfD0NchWM

— ࿗?The अन्वेषक ???️?? (@The_anveSaka) December 29, 2023

During the performance, Nachiketa Chakraborty said, “There is a lot of fuss about this Ram Janmabhoomi in our country, it is not a matter of religion, it is actually a political game.” Then he sang, “If we believe in Ram, then why not Dashrath? If we want to know the birthplace of Ram, Dashrath should be called on a planchette. Only he can tell where Ram was born! Otherwise Ram will continue to be born every hour sometimes in Ayodhya, sometimes Kishkindha and sometimes Dharmatala.”

Cannot take cognisance of the offence based only on social media content: HC

The High Court acknowledged that the allegation was serious in nature, however, it said that solely social media content without any mention of the date, time and place of the concert cannot be a ground for taking cognisance of such offence. “This Court also finds upon perusal of the application filed u/s 156(3) of Cr.P.C. that only the contents of social media mentioning, without any date, time and place of the concert and without any authenticity, cannot be the ground to take cognisance of such offence even though the allegation of offence is serious in nature. This Court also notes that even the record does not reflect any other allegation(s) or any incident of riot in this regard from any corner to date. No other complaints were found in the records either,” the judge said.

“In the backdrop of the aforesaid facts, and due to lack of sufficient materials placed on the part of the Petitioner, this Court does not find any illegality, infirmity or perversity against the order dated 04.08.2023 passed by the Learned Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate for rejecting the application under Section 156(3) of Cr.P.C. filed by the petitioner before him. Therefore, this present revisional application is devoid of merit,” it added.