'Tandav' Row: Criminal complaint filed against web series in Delhi court

MUMBAI: A criminal complaint has been filed before a Delhi court seeking action against OTT platform Amazon Prime and the makers of Saif Sli Khan starrer webseries 'Tandav'.

The complaint filed under Section 200 of the CrPC seeks summoning, commencing trial and punishing the accused persons alleging that the web series is provoking communal disharmony and is hurting the sentiments of Hindus.

The matter is likely to come up for hearing on January 23. The complaint has been filed by Vishnu Gupta, the founder of Hindu Sena.

The complaint has named Ali Abbas Zafar (director), Aparna Purohit (head, India Amazon original contents), Himanshu Krishna Mehra (producer), Gaurav Solanki (writer), Saif Ali Khan (actor), Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub (actor) and Gauhar Khan (actor) as accused.

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"The 'Tandav' web series is inciting and provoking communal disharmony and sentiments of the Hindus. The accused through their web series have targeted the government of India and the government of Uttar Pradesh," the plea states.

"The web series has, without any legal justification, shown the police are doing illegal encounters of Muslims under the government of Uttar Pradesh with the mala-fide and criminal intention to defame the government of Uttar Pradesh and create an atmosphere of hatred between Muslims and Hindus," it added.

Earlier this week, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry had issued a notice to Amazon Prime, seeking its response to the complaints against the web series.

The web series had faced charges of inflaming religious passions and some police complaints have also been filed. According to the complaint, Hindu deities have been denigrated in it.

According to the sources, a proper response to all the allegations has been sought from Amazon Prime, failing which action would be initiatd against it.

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