An Indore-based cartoonist was booked after a complaint alleged that he made derogatory cartoons of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the RSS, the Madhya Pradesh Police said on Thursday.
The cartoonist, Hemant Malviya, told that he was being targeted because his cartoons question the administration.
In the complaint filed by one Vinay Joshi, a Madhya Pradesh High Court advocate and RSS volunteer, Malviya has been accused of posting objectionable content on his account that allegedly defamed the RSS and hurt religious sentiments.
A senior police officer said an FIR was registered based on the complaint at Lasudia Police Station in Indore, under sections 196 (promoting enmity between different groups), 299 (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), 302 (uttering words, etc with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings of any person), 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 353(2) (statements conducive to public mischief) of the BNS and section 67-A (publishing or transmitting material containing sexually explicit act, etc, in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act.
“No arrest has been made. We are investigating the case,” a senior police officer said.
This is not the first time that Malviya, whose cartoons touch on political issues, has been booked by police. In 2022, he was booked by the Uttarakhand Police on charges of making obscene posters of yoga guru Ramdev. Months later, he was booked by police in Indore for allegedly making defamatory statements following the death of PM Modi’s mother in December 2022.
Closure reports have been filed in both the cases, Malviya said.
“I am targeted for my cartoons that question the administration. Closure reports were filed in both criminal cases. I never spoke against the PM’s mother. I have been a target of the right wing in the state ever since I gained infamy with the Ramdev case,” he told The Indian Express.
The complainant, Joshi, alleged that when he opened Malviya’s Facebook account, it allegedly contained images, videos, and comments that were deliberately posted to incite hatred against the RSS. He alleged the posts also contained objectionable, offensive, and derogatory cartoons targeting Prime Minister Modi and RSS volunteers. There were also comments on Lord Shiva, deemed offensive to religious sentiments, the complainant alleged.
Joshi alleged that the posts were a deliberate act to “incite conflict between communities (and) defame and provoke the world’s largest organisation, the RSS. The intention behind this act appears to be to instigate RSS workers and society to riot, take the law into their own hands, engage in violence, and disrupt public order”.
