New Delhi: The Supreme Court declined Wednesday to grant interim protection from arrest to Ali Abbas Zafar, director of web series Tandav, and others. The makers and actors of Tandav, earlier in a plea had sought quashing of FIRs against them. The FIRs had been filed for allegedly hurting religious sentiments of Hindus.
A bench comprising justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and MR Shah was hearing as many as three separate petitions of Zafar, Amazon Prime India head Aparna Purohit, producer Himanshu Mehra, the show’s writer Gaurav Solanki and actor Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub. Besides seeking quashing of the FIRs, the pleas have sought clubbing of FIRs.
The bench has sought responses from states such as UP, MP, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Bihar and Delhi on the pleas.
Tandav, a nine-episode political thriller starring Bollywood A-listers Saif Ali Khan, Dimple Kapadia and Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub, started streaming recently.
A number of FIRs have been filed against the makers and actors of the web series for failing to show proper respect to Lord Shiva. The director of the series had also apologised earlier for hurting religious sentiments. Zafar and the other makers had also assured that objectionable scenes of the series had been reshot.
