Uttar Pradesh: UP Govt Lodges FIR Against Urdu Poet Munawwar Rana For Allegedly Defending France Killings

“The statements are potentially promoting enmity between different communities, can have adverse effects on social harmony and disrupt peace,” the FIR stated.

After allegedly defending the recent killings in France over a caricature of Prophet Muhammad, an FIR has been registered against renowned Urdu poet Munawwar Rana on Monday in Uttar Pradesh. The FIR was registered at the Hazratganj police station in Lucknow on a complaint by sub-inspector Deepak Kumar Pandey, on the allegation that the Urdu Poet in an interview with ABP News defended the killings in France over the cartoon of Prophet Muhammad. “The statements are potentially promoting enmity between different communities, can have adverse effects on social harmony and disrupt peace,” the FIR stated. Rana who had allegedly made the controversial comments in an interview with ABP News, after three people were killed in a knife attack at a church in Nice last week. A few weeks ago, an assailant had decapitated a French middle school teacher who showed caricatures of Prophet Muhammad for a class on free speech. The case against Rana has been lodged at the Hazratganj police station in Lucknow on Sunday under various Indian Penal Code sections, including 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings), an officer said. The poet has also been booked under IPC Section 505 (statements conducing public mischief) and Section 66 of the Information Technology Act, the officer said. In the interview, Rana said, "The person who made the cartoon (in France) had done a wrong act and the person who murdered the cartoonist did an extremely wrong act,". The poet asserted that he did not endorse murders taking place anywhere in the world, pointing out that in the Ballabhgarh case in Haryana, he had tweeted that both the youths should be shot at the same place where they had shot dead a 21-year-old woman last week. The poet also stated, he will never endorse killings, but the Prime Minister of India should also have seen the other side too, pointing to the statement of PM Modi on Twitter over the killings that took place in France. Police have lodged the FIR taking cognizance of the TV interview and a probe is on, the officer further added.