The Allahabad High Court on Friday quashed the FIR against Farhan Akhar and Ritesh Sidhwani, producers of the web series Mirzapur. The FIR had alleged that the show hurt religious, social and regional sentiments through their portrayal of the town of Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh in the web series. The division bench also quashed the FIRs against Karan Anshuman, Gurmeet Singh, Puneet Krishna and Vineet Krishna who had written and directed two seasons of the show Mirzapur.
The FIR had been registered under Sections 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of Indian Penal Code (IPC).
In challenging the FIR, the petitioners had said that the show was purely a word of fiction. They pointed out to the disclaimer at the beginning of every episode that said that it was purely fictional and that the makers respected all religions.
FIR registered against Mirzapur for hurting religious sentiments
A team of Uttar Pradesh police arrived in Mumbai to investigate the FIR against ‘Mirzapur’ on Thursday. The case was lodged, following a complaint by one Arvind Chaturvedi, who said that the web series hurt his religious sentiments, displayed abusive content, promoted enmity in the society and presented the district of Mirzapur in poor light.
