Comedians Arrested, Audience Assaulted Over Alleged Blasphemy

POPULAR Indian stand-up comedian Munawar Faruqui and four fellow performers who were arrested last Friday were denied bail yesterday (Tuesday) by a court in Madhya Pradesh. They stand accused of ‘outraging religious feelings’ and breaking COVID-19 rules.

The five were taken into custody after some members of the audience at a show held at Cafe Monroe in the city of Indore were attacked and beaten by a gang of Hindu fanatics led by Eklavya Singh Gaur, son of Indore’s BJP MLA Malini Gaur.

According to this Firstpost report, Gaur complained to the police that the comedians had insulted Hindu deities during the show and also cracked jokes about Home Minister Amit Shah.

Gaur told reporters that he and his friends went to watch the show where Faruqui was performing as the main comedian.

The show mocked Hindu deities … We shot a video and stopped the show by taking the audience out of the cafe.

According to the audience members, Gaur and his gang flanked Munawar from all sides and began dragging him and audience members out of the cafe. Said one member of the audience:

What followed was atrocious. We had barely reached the doors, when goons and gundas [hooligans] started yelling at us and started pushing us back inside the cafe. The entrance is quite narrow, there was a stampede-like situation and what was worse was they started beating everyone.

Firstpost reported that:

Young college students, who had come for an evening of fun and laughter, got slapped, thrashed and some had their glasses and phones broken.

Eyewitnesses insist that no religious jokes were cracked, but Gaur, below, arrested in 2016 for allegedly roughing up a policeman at a religious gathering, called Faruqui “a serial offender” regarding jokes that offend Hindu deities.

He has done this before and he is still doing it. We have said that in the FIR [First Information Report] but the complaint is against the 1st Jan show.

Gaur said that when he got to know that Munawar is holding a show in Indore, he and his associates bought tickets and went to the event as members of the audience.

Some of our people were outside also. And as expected, they were mocking our gods and goddesses. There were jokes on Ganesh and Karthik, a mockery of Indian culture. So, we stopped the show and we told the audience to leave. And then filed the FIR.

According to Gaur:

Even art has its limitations.

Town inspector of Tukaganj Police Station, Kamlesh Sharma, was quoted by The Indian Express as saying:

There’s no evidence against him for insulting Hindu deities or Union Minister Amit Shah.

Sharma added:

All the accused are still in judicial custody. We are investigating the case. We have seized pen drives and hard drives and we are looking into the matter.

Meanwhile, support has been pouring in for Faruqui on social media, with several comics and celebrities voicing support for the performer.

Writer and comedian Varun Grover shared his statement of support via Instagram saying:

A fellow Indian, a fellow comedian is in jail and got beaten up by a mob because of the words he uttered. Here he’s trying to logically, calmly present his case but our systems now just want to brutally silence every voice.

The five have been booked under Indian Penal Code’s Sections 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings), section 298 (deliberate intent to wound religious feelings), section 269 (negligent act likely to spread disease), section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) and section 34 (common intention).

They are being held in custody until January 13.