The Muzaffarpur Police in Bihar has lodged a first information report against actors Anupam Kher, Akshaye Khanna and 12 others based on a district court’s direction in connection with the movie The Accidental Prime Minister, PTI reported on Wednesday. The FIR was lodged at the Kanti police station on Tuesday.
The film, featuring actor Anupam Kher as former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, was released on January 11. The film is based on Sanjaya Baru’s 2014 memoir of the same name and details Singh’s relationship with the Congress party’s Gandhi family.
On January 8, a court in Bihar had ordered police to file a case against Kher, Khanna and 15 others associated with the film after a petition was filed by advocate Sudhir Kumar Ojha.
Ojha said he had moved the court of Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate Saba Alam on February 4 to inform the court that the police had not complied with the court’s order from January 8. “On this, the court issued show-cause notice to Kanti police station through the Muzaffarpur senior superintendent of police after which police lodged an FIR yesterday (Tuesday),” Ojha told reporters on Wednesday.
Senior Superintendent of Police Manoj Kumar said he ordered police officials at Kanti police station to comply with the court order.
The FIR was registered under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, related to promoting enmity among different groups, sale of obscene objects, insult with intent to provoke breach of peace and criminal conspiracy.
Ojha’s petition claimed that the movie portrayed the former prime minister and several public figures “in a bad light”. Ojha claimed that the film’s trailer had hurt his sentiments. Ojha had named Kher and Khanna in the complaint, along with the film’s producer, director and key persons associated with the film.
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