Mirzapur web series: HC quashes FIR against Farhan Akhtar, others

PRAYAGRAJ : The Allahabad high court on Friday quashed the FIR against Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani, producers of the web series Mirzapur, and other accused in a case registered against them for allegedly hurting religious, social and regional sentiments through their portrayal of the town of Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh in the series.

The other accused in the case were Karan Anshuman, the director of season one, Gurmeet Singh, the director of season two, Vineet Krishna, the writer of season one, and Puneet Krishna, the writer of season two.

Justice MC Tripathi and Justice Subhash Vidyarthi allowed the petition filed by the accused in the case.

Earlier, on January 29 2021, the court had stayed the arrest of Mirzapur web series producers Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar. However, the court had made it clear that the investigation shall go on and the petitioners shall co-operate.

The FIR was registered against the makers of the “Mirzapur” series under Section 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) and other sections of the Indian Penal Code and Section 67-A of the Information Technology Act.

Appearing for the petitioner, senior advocate Manish Tiwari, assisted by advocate Syed Imran Ibrahim, had argued that even if all allegations in the FIR were accepted to be correct, no case was made out against the petitioners. There was no allegation that the web series was produced with any deliberate or malicious intention of outraging the religious and social feelings of the citizens of India or to insult the religious and social feelings of the people of any particular class, the counsel argued.

On the other hand, the state counsel had submitted that there was a specific allegation that the web series hurt the social and religious feelings of the first informant.

The bench, after hearing the parties concerned, observed, “There is no allegation in the entire F.I.R. that any content shown in the Series portrays any particular religion in a bad light and which can possibly hurt the religious feelings of a