Stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra on Saturday approached the Bombay High Court with a plea against FIR registered by Mumbai Police for cracking an allegedly objectionable joke on Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde during a stand-up comedy show.
Kamra, as per HC website, filed a plea on April 5 seeking quashing of FIR, claiming that the action was violative of his fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 19 (1) (a) (right to freedom of speech and expression), 19 (1) (g) (right to practice any profession and business) and 21 (right to life and personal liberty) under Constitution.
As per case status on HC website, the matter is listed for hearing before a bench of Justices Sarang V Kotwal and Shriram M Modak on April 21.
He did not appear before the Mumbai Police again on Saturday after being summoned for the third time in the case.
After Shiv Sena MLA Murji Patel filed a complaint, the MIDC police station on March 24 booked Kamra for offences punishable under sections 353(1)(b) and 353(2) (statements conducing to public mischief), along with 356(2) (defamation) of Bhartiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS). The MIDC police later transferred the Zero FIR to Khar police.
Patel had complained that Kamra, during a stand-up comedy show at Habitat Studio in Unicontinental Hotel, Khar, defamed Shinde by making derogatory statements about his moral conduct. Patel claimed that, “Kamra also created hatred between two political parties by tarnishing the sentiments of our party and our rival political parties towards each other.”
Last month, the Madras High Court had granted till April 7 an interim anticipatory bail to Kamra in connection with an FIR lodged in Mumbai over his alleged remarks against Deputy Chief Minister Eknath shinde.
Story continues below this ad
Kamra approached the Madras High Court on the grounds that he is a permanent resident of a northern Tamil Nadu district and feared immediate arrest and physical harm if he were to travel to Maharashtra.
He had submitted before the Madras HC that the complaint against him was politically motivated, and the vandalism that happened pursuant to uploading of the video by certain politically affiliated persons shows malicious nature of the complaint based on which FIR was registered.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
