The Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted three weeks transit pre-arrest bail to Tandav web series Director Ali Abbas Zafar, Amazon Prime India head Aparna Purohit, producer Himanshu Mehra, and the show's writer Gaurav Solanki. All the accused were granted protection from arrest from the FIR filed against them in Lucknow at Hazratganj police station.
The makers of the Tandav have been booked for promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, makes destruction, damage, or defilement of a place of worship or an object held sacred; forgery for purpose of harming reputation, statements conducing to public mischief, with intent to threaten the unity, integrity, security or sovereignty of India, or to strike terror in the people or any section of the people.
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A single-judge bench of Justice Prakash D Naik granted relief to Ali Abbas Zafar and others. In their application, they say that the FIR does not specify any instance from the web series that could actually be deemed as an indecent portrayal of any gods or goddesses. "The primary allegation by the Complainant as stated therein is that the content of the web-series has depicted Hindu deities in an indecent manner which is hurtful to religious sentiments and has depicted caste inequality which is hurtful to caste sentiments. However, the FIR does not specify/ identify/ describe /elaborate any specific instance in the web-series which may be deemed as indecent depiction of any gods and goddesses for being hurtful to religious sentiments or amount to any offences as alleged."