Adoor, Guha, 47 others slapped with sedition charge over letter to PM denouncing lynchings

Muzaffarpur: Noted filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan and historian Ramachandra Guha are among the 49 people who have been booked in Bihar's Muzaffarpur over their recent open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi raising concern over the growing incidents of lynching in the country.

Cases have also been registered against filmmakers Mani Ratnam, Anurag Kashyap and Aparna Sen over the same issue.

The FIR was lodged on Thursday by the police on an order of Chief Judicial Magistrate Surya Kant Tiwari.

According to reports, a local lawyer, Sudhir Kumar Ojha, had approached the court alleging that the open letter signed by nearly 50 eminent personalities "tarnished the image of the country and undermined the impressive performance of the Prime Minister and supported secessionist tendencies."

According to PTI, the accused have been booked under various section of the IPC including for sedition, public nuisance, hurting religious feelings and insulting with an intent to provoke breach of peace.

The letter was written by 49 eminent personalities, including actor Soumitra Chatterjee as well as vocalist Shubha Mudgal, in July this year. It also noted that the slogan "Jai Shri Ram" had been reduced to a "provocative war cry".

After their letter, another set of 61 celebrities had written another open letter questioning their "selective outrage and false narrative."

B Gopalakrishnan, a BJP leader from Kerala, even asked Adoor Gopalakrishnan, who was one of the signatories to "change his name and go to another planet" if he is unable to hear the Jai Shree Ram chant.

Responding to this, the director had said the BJP leadership wants him to go to Moon as Pakistan has been full now. Many times in the past, leaders of the saffron outfit had urged people who stood against its ideology to go to Pakistan.

"If there is a Chandrayaan-3 mission and if they issue me a ticket, I would be happy to grab that opportunity as I can move around the orbit," Adoor said in a lighter vein referring to India's lunar mission.

Stating that the signatories of the letter to the prime minister do not belong to any political party, Adoor said there was nothing in the letter to provoke the BJP. He said Gopalakrishnan's statement was justifying mob lynching.

"It should not be justified by anyone. Gopalakrishnan should rectify his mistake and apologise," he had said.