Mumbai's Pydhonie police has registered a complaint against comedy show host Shekhar Suman, stand up comic Bharti Singh and Sony TV for offending the religious sentiments of the Muslim community.
The Kalma is a symbol of the acceptance of Islam, and when translated reads thus: There is no God but Allah and I bear witness that Mohammed is the messenger of Allah.
In one of her acts, Singh allegedly cracked a joke on the Islamic Kalma leading to protests.
Raza Academy's General Secretary Saeed Noori along with Maulana Sayyed Moin Ashraf and Sohel Lokhandwala, a former MLA, visited home minister R R Patil to voice their protest on the issue, reports MidDay.
The incident occurred on November 20, when Singh on an episode of Comedy Circus made a dig of the Kalma, with Suman repeating the same.
"The episode was aired on November 20. Both Shekhar Suman and Bharti Singh are to blame, and since the channel had aired the show, we have filed an FIR against them too," said Noori.
Noori said the home minister was shown the episode during the meeting. "We have registered a case against Shekhar Suman, Sony TV and Bharti Singh under section 295 of the IPC for hurting religious sentiments," said Senior Police Inspector Shamsherkhan Pathan of Pydhonie police station.
Suman said, "It was Bharti who unknowingly made some disparaging remarks. How are the judges responsible for it?"
A PTI report said, the FIR under IPC sections 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) was registered against the channel, Suman, Singh and the scriptwriter yesterday, Pydhonie Police Station Senior Inspector Pathan Samsher said.
