Team Tandav to perform Tandav in UP jailTeam Tandav to perform Tandav in UP jail

After the release of web series Tandav on Amazon Prime Video on January 15, in which Hindu Gods have been insulted, multiple FIRs have been registered against the production team Tandav and Aprana Purohit who is the Content Head at Amazon.

After an FIR was registered on January 17, against all the four at the Hazratganj police station, Lucknow, under Sections 153 (A) (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class), 505 (1) (B) (with intent to cause, or which is likely to cause, fear or alarm to the public, or to any section of the public whereby any person may be induced to commit an offence against the state or against the public tranquillity), 505 (2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes) and 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation of the Indian Penal Code, along with Sections 66 (computer-related offences), 66F (punishment for cyber terrorism) and 67 (punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act, a team of UP police was sent to Mumbai by the UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Transit Anticipatory Bail granted
Soon as the news of UP police leaving for Mumbai became public, Saif Ali Khan – went on “shooting” and left home although he is not directly named in the FIR (see image).

And the team Tandav – producer Himanshu Mehra, director Ali Abbas Zafar and witer Gaurav Solanki (all named in the FIR) along with Aparna Solanki (also named in the FIR) original content head at Amazon – rushed to Bombay High Court on Wednesday January 20, to seek Transit Anticipatory Bail after the four applicants apprehended arrest by the Lucknow Police.

The urgent application – which was not listed for the day, was happily and willingly accommodated for hearing at 4.30PM.

A single judge bench of Justice P.D. Naik heard the application seeking transit anticipatory bail for eight weeks through advocate Aniket Nikam. Lawyers for the applicants contended that there was every likelihood of the applicants being arrested at any point in time.

Hearing two separate applications – one for Aparna Purohit and another for the rest three, within a very short space of time the requested relief was granted giving all four protection from arrest for three weeks.

The court also ordered each applicant to furnish PR Bond in the sum of Rs. 25,000/- each with one or more sureties.

This was in clear contrast to Arnba Goswami’s application wherein a Division Bench of Justice Karnik and Justice Shinde had refused to intervene.

Tandav is a web series on India staring Saif Ali Khan, Dimple Kapadia, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayub and others which ridicules Hindu Gods and many Indian cultural practices.