NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday protected activist advocate Prashant Bhushan from arrest in a criminal case lodged against him in Gujarat on a complaint accusing him of hurting religious sentiments of Hindus by allegedly comparing Ramayana and Mahabharata to ‘opium’.
“Let notice be issued. No coercive action to be taken till next date of hearing,” a Bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan said while asking the state of Gujarat to respond to his petition in two weeks.
“Mr Dave, anybody can watch anything on TV. How can you say people cannot watch this and that?” Justice Bhushan told senior advocate Dushyant Dave who represented Prashant Bhushan.
“No we are not on people watching something on TV. But we are on the FIR,” Dave responded.
Bhushan is seeking quashing of an FIR against him in Gujarat for allegedly hurting religious sentiments of Hindus by his comments on Twitter critical of people watching Ramayana and Mahabharata.
The FIR was registered against him in Gujarat’s Rajkot by a retired Army officer Jaydev Joshi for allegedly “hurting Hindu religious sentiments” by using objectionable language against Ramayana and Mahabharata being shown on Doordarshan.
Bhushan had allegedly tweeted that when crores suffered due to ‘forced lockdown’, government was feeding masses the opium of Ramayana and Mahabharat telecast on Doordarshan.
The probe into the matter has now been transferred to the Special Operations Group (SOG).