Kiku arrest: Courts should stop wasting time
At a time when the courts are overburdened with a backlog of cases, a Haryana court ordered the arrest of actor Kiku Sharda, who plays Palak in Comedy Nights With Kapil, on January 13 and 14 days' judicial custody for allegedly mimicking controversial and self-proclaimed saint Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, spiritual head of the Dera Sacha Sauda. Though Kiku was later released in the evening after Ram Rahim intervened in the matter and pardoned him, it raises the issue of courts taking cognisance of frivolous cases of hurt sentiments. Instead of acting on such cases, the courts should focus on dealing with the backlog of cases. Besides, they should simultaneously discourage and reject frivolous cases.
In fact, the filing of the case under section 295A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in itself raises questions. Section 295A deals with deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs. It says, "Whoever, with deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of any class of citizens of India, by words, either spoken or written, or by signs or by visible representations or otherwise, insults or attempts to insult the religion or the religious beliefs of that class, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both."
Whether Ram Rahim's Dera Sacha Sauda is a religion is debatable. Hence, filing of the case under section 295A can itself be challenged. Moreover, the self-styled godman himself had dressed like Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh guru, distributed "amrit" (nectar) to his followers a few years ago and hurt the religious sentiments of the Sikhs. At the time, this had led to violent clashes between the Sikhs and Rahim's followers which resulted in the death of several people in Punjab. The matter came to an end only when Rahim's apology was accepted by the Akal Takht.
Moreover, Ram Rahim has always courted controversies and has found himself on the other side of law. The controversial self-styled saint is facing a CBI inquiry for forced castration of his supporters. He and his supporters have also been accused of rape and murder of women.
It is ironic that Ram Rahim and his supporters are now victimising Kiku, who was only doing his "job" as an actor. They also solely targeted Kiku, sparing the scriptwriter, costume designer, hairdresser, producer, director or even the hosts of Zee TV's Jashn-e-Ummeed show which was telecast on December 27, 2015. Kiku had mimicked Ram Rahim in this very show which has landed the former in trouble.
Or, if mocking Babas is a crime, then surely cartoonists, and stand-up comedians like Raju Srivastava, who mimic people like Baba Ramdev, Asaram Bapu, Nirmal Baba and Radhe Maa, should also be arrested.