New Delhi, Oct 9 (DWNN): Sudhir Kumar Ojha, a Muzaffarpur-based advocate, who filed a case in a Bihar court against the 49 noted personalities who had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi raising concern over the growing incidents of mob lynching in the country, has been charged by police for filing a false case.
The police will file a prosecution against complainant Sudhir Kumar Ojha in court, according to News 18. Muzaffarpur Senior Superintendent of Police Manoj Kumar Sinha said he also ordered that the case of sedition be closed against the celebrities.
Sinha said the order has been issued by him for closure of the case as the investigation so far has revealed that allegations were levelled against the accused out of "mischief" and "lacked substance".
ADG Headquarter Jitendra Kumar said the complainant was neither able to produce supporting documents or evidence nor even the alleged letter written by the 49 persons, which may support his claim of commission of any offence.
"On this and other circumstantial basis, the case is found to be false and an order has been issued by him to the investigating officer to submit final report — false. Along with this, finding this to be an intentional purpose of complainant, prosecution under sections 182 and 211 (relating to false information or false charge of offence) will be submitted against the complainant for lodging a false case," the police statement added.
The FIR was lodged at the Sadar police station last week against 49 noted personalities, including historian Ramchandra Guha, Mani Ratnam, Aparna Sen and Shyam Benegal, upon the order of the Chief Judicial Magistrate which had forwarded a petition filed by Ojha.
The FIR was lodged under several sections of the Indian Penal Code, including those related to sedition, public nuisance, hurting religious feelings and insulting with an intent to provoke breach of peace.
The letter written by the celebrities had said that the lynching of Muslims, Dalits and other minorities must be stopped immediately, while stressing there was "no democracy without dissent". It also noted that the 'Jai Shri Ram' slogan was reduced to a "provocative war cry".
The 50-year-old advocate claims to have filed as many as 745 PILs since he started his law practice in 1996. He has a track record of taking the celebrities to court over issues like advertisements of "hazardous junk food" and smooch scenes in Bollywood films. In 2007, Ojha had filed a PIL against the makers of film Dhoom 2 for a kissing scene, while 2013, he had filed a PIL against Amitabh Bachchan for promoting Maggi, which he said was hazardous to health.
Former prime minister Manmohan Singh, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, MNS chief Raj Thackeray are among those against whom Ojha has filed PILs.