A man has moved a Bandra magistrate court to direct the police to probe filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma for the offence of criminal defamation for his tweet on the nomination of Draupadi Murmu as the BJP’s presidential candidate.
The filmmaker in his tweet on June 22 had said “if DRAUPADI is the PRESIDENT who are the PANDAVAS? and more importantly , who are the Karavas” (sic). The complainant - one Subhash Rajora, has said that the comment outrages modesty of a woman on social media. Varma had later in another tweet clarified that the earlier tweet was meant only in earnest irony and not intended in any other manner. “Draupadi in Mahabharata is my favourite character but Since the name is such a rarity I just remember the associated characters and hence not my expression not at all intended to hurt sentiments of any one,” he had said in the clarification tweet.
The complainant’s lawyer DV Saroj in a press note has stated that the tweet disrespects scheduled caste people as he has called Draupadi as ‘Draupati’ and hurt his sentiments. He said RGV has made a derogatory statement against a senior woman politician and former Jharkhand governor. It said further that it was intended to tarnish her image and reputation and has caused “embarrassment” to him.
The release said he had approached Bandra’s Nirmal Nagar police station to register an FIR against Varma for offences of criminal defamation among others as well as had written to the higher police officials. The police had not yet initiated any legal action against Varma, he complained and hence he had approached the court for a direction to the police to probe the filmmaker.
Meanwhile, Goshamahal BJP MLA T Raja Singh also expressed his anger at Ram Gopal Varma's comments against the NDA's Presidential nominee, saying that the director posts such tweets in a 'drunken condition'.
"Varma always tries to be in the news by making such controversial comments," he added.
However, this is not the first time Ram Gopal Varma has been a part of controversies on social media.
In April, amidst a Twitter war between Ajay Devgn and Kichcha Sudeep, over Hindi being the national language, director Ram Gopal Varma had jumped into the controversy saying "north stars are insecure and jealous of the south stars."
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