Guna (Madhya Pradesh): A day after members of Valmiki community lodged a complaint against Munnawar Rana for his derogatory remark on Maharishi Valmiki, an FIR has been registered against the poet at Kotwali police station in Guna.
Valmiki community members accused the poet of hurting religious feelings by talking about Maharishi Valmiki, who wrote Ramayana and the dreaded Taliban in the same breath. Upset over the remarks of Munawwar, scores of Valmiki community members staged a protest against Rana in Guna and demanded that an FIR be registered against him.
They submitted a memorandum to the district administration addressed to the President under the leadership of a senior member of Valmiki Samaj and state minister of BJP Scheduled Caste Morcha Sunil Malviya.
Sub-inspector Gorishankar Sharma from Kotwali police station informed that FIR has been registered against Munnawar under Section 505 (intent to incite) of the Indian Penal Code and the case has been forwarded to Hazratganj police station in Lucknow.
Rana while talking to a channel had said: “Valmiki became a God after he wrote the Ramayana, before that he was a dacoit. A person's character can change. Similarly, the Taliban, for now, are terrorists but people and characters change."
“When you talk about Valmiki, you will have to talk about his past. In your religion, you make anyone God. But he was a writer and he wrote the Ramayana, but we are not in competition here,” Rana had said.
This is not the first time when Rana has courted controversy. In November 2020, an FIR was registered against the poet at Hazratganj police station in Lucknow for allegedly defending the killings in France over a caricature of Prophet Muhammad.
