Mumbai: Stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra has filed a petition before Bombay high court against an FIR filed against him at Khar police station following his show. A division bench of Justices Sarang Kotwal and S M Modak posted it for hearing on Tuesday after senior counsel Navroz Seervai cited urgency, saying Mumbai police had landed up in Pondicherry, close to where Kamra is residing at present, after issuing summons to him. Seervai said, “the situation is grave,” and sought an urgent hearing. The plea seeks interim relief to prevent coercive action by Mumbai police. Kamra, 36, who resides in Tamil Nadu, says despite the dire threats issued to him, Mumbai police has refused to permit him to appear via video conferencing in response to the summons and has demanded that he be physically present.
The HC, scheduling the matter for Tuesday, said the other side—MLA Murji Patel—also has to be served as he must be heard too. Patel is the complainant against Kamra. The HC suggested that Kamra ought to, in keeping with a Supreme Court ruling, consider filing for regular pre-arrest bail in Mumbai, which would have to be filed before the sessions court.
Dwelling on fundamental rights, Seervai said the FIR makes no case and ought to be stayed. Kamra’s petition was filed on Saturday. His case is that he expressed personal views on the political upheaval in Maharashtra and the Shiv Sena split. The complaint by the MLA alleges that Kamra defamed deputy CM Eknath Shinde and damaged the reputation of his party.
Kamra’s show was held in February, but once uploaded on social media last month, it was met with an immediate and violent reaction by Sena party workers, who vandalised the Mumbai venue, said Kamra’s plea, adding that he received death threats too. Police also summoned Kamra’s team and his audience at the show. He said they also disturbed his senior citizen parents under the guise of serving the summons at 10.30 pm.
The petition says the FIR is “mala fide” and the proceedings “malicious and politically motivated by members of Shinde-led Sena—a gross abuse of their power as part of the ruling coalition in Maharashtra.” It says the FIR discloses no offence under section 353 (1) (b) of BNS of causing fear or alarm to the public or for inducing anyone to disrupt public tranquillity. Kamra has interim protection against arrest from Madras HC.
The petition before the Bombay HC, drafted by advocate Ashwin Thool and filed through advocate Meenaz Kakalia, questions the alacrity with which the FIR was registered in “70 minutes” after the complaint was filed on Kamra’s stand-up routine at the Khar venue. Given that the show provides “satirical commentary on social and political events,” the FIR exemplifies “gross abuse of process and mala fide deployment of the criminal justice machinery by a member of the State Legislative Assembly, resulting in patent violation of a citizen’s fundamental rights, including the fundamental right to freedom of speech and freedom to practice any profession,” the petition said.
Kamra’s petition says, “The registration of the FIR and ensuing investigation has also had a profound and chilling effect on all political speech in the country, as all citizens are presented with the possibility of the weaponization of the criminal justice system in response to all commentary and criticism against political leaders and those in positions of authority. ”