Comedian Munawar Faruqui to remain behind bars as superior court rejects bail plea too

An Indore court rejected bail to stand-up comedian Munawar Faruqui and another accused, arrested on Saturday on a complaint filed by a local BJP MLA’s son alleging that "indecent" remarks were made by him against Hindu deities and Union Home Minister Amit Shah during a show.

The court of Additional District and Sessions rejected the bail pleas filed by Munawar Faruqui and Nalin Yadav, following rejection of their bail by court of chief judicial magistrate on January 2, as per news reports.

The lawyer for Munawar Faruqui, Anshuman Shrivastava, said that the allegations levelled against his clients are "vague" in nature and that the two were booked under ‘political pressure’.

Opposing the bail plea, prosecution lawyer Vimal Mishra said both the accused had participated in the event for which no permission was taken from local administration amid the pandemic. He alleged that indecent remarks were made against Hindu deities at the event.

National Herald had reported earlier that a police officer had gone on record saying that there was no video evidence showing Munawar Faruqui making the remarks in question.

“There’s no evidence against him for insulting Hindu deities or Union Minister Amit Shah,” Town Inspector of Tukaganj Police Station Kamlesh Sharma had said. He said the two videos submitted by the complainant are of another comedian with him allegedly cracking jokes on Lord Ganesh.

A woman who attended the show had also denied that any derogatory remarks were made by Faruqui during the show. Jenosha Agnes had posted on Instagram: “As Munawar arrived on the stage, few people with political connections rushed to the stage, snatched the mic and began saying “hamare religious sentiments hurt hue hai… Godhra kand per joke kiya… Hamare devi devta ka mazak udaya… Islam pe joke q nahi karta hai”.

“No derogatory remarks were made by Munawar Faruqui at the Indore show,” she said.

Several comics, including Varun Grover, Vir Das, Kaneez Surkha, Agrima Joshua and Rohan Joshi have taken to social media in support of Faruqui.

Vir Das posted on his Twitter handle:

He also posted a screenshot of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tweet from 2017, which spoke about the importance of satire and humour. “I’m just going to leave this here,” Das wrote.

(With inputs from PTI)