'pk' row: BJP chief Amit Shah cites right to protest

Mumbai/ New Delhi/ Jaipur/ Varanasi: BJP President Amit Shah on Friday said that people have the freedom to protest against Amir Khan-starrer film PK.

Speaking to reporters in Mumbai on Friday, Mr Shah said, “People have the freedom to do so (protest),” when asked about the protests against the movie which has raised the hackles of hardline Hindu outfits.

Meanwhile, complaints were lodged on Friday against the director, producer and actor of the movie at several places.

In Jaipur, amid continued protests against the movie by some right wing groups, a case has been registered against the director, the producer, and the actor under section 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings) and 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language) of the IPC.

However, the director, the producer and the actor have not been named in the FIR filed in Bajaj Nagar police station here, police said on Friday.

In Varanasi, which is the constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a complaint was filed in a court against actor Aamir Khan, director Rajkumar Hirani and producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra for “hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus” and promoting “nudity and vulgarity” in the film.

The application was moved in the court of additional chief judicial magistrate, Tarun Kumar Singh, here by a local lawyer Kamlesh Chandra Tripathi.

Meanwhile, Arya Samaj leader Swami Agnivesh on Friday came out in support of PK, saying those who are protesting against the film are “ignorant” about religion.

“I believe that they have not even seen the film. The movie has attempted to dispel the myths and superstitions,” said Agnivesh. “We really need to eliminate superstitions as our Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the very first day after taking charge had said that poverty will not end till the time we eradicate superstitions,” he said.

However, as protests against the film continued, the producers on Friday said the film has broken Dhoom 3 record to become the biggest earner in Bollywood by collecting Rs 278.52 crores since its release on December 19. “I had never in my wildest dreams thought this film will cross these numbers. It’s humbling,” the director said.

Sanjay Sharma, an RTI activist, has sought an FIR against Mr Yadav under Section 154 of the CrPC for downloading the film from a website and watching a pirated copy. While declaring tax exemption for PK on Wednesday, the Chief Minister had said that he had downloaded the film a few days ago but watched it only a day before.

The CMO, however, tweeted, “UPCM Akhilesh Yadav has licensed @UFOmovies digifacility to download and watch movies. Controversy around pirated download is unwarranted.”