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Bhojpuri Singer Neha Rathore Booked Over Social Media Post on MP Urination Incident

author The Wire Staff
Jul 08, 2023
She has been charged under Section 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups) of the IPC, based on a complaint filed by a BJP worker.

New Delhi: Bhojpuri singer Neha Rathore has been booked in connection with a social media post about the incident of a man urinating on a tribal in Madhya Pradesh. The complainant is Suraj Khare, a BJP worker.

Rathore has been charged under Section 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups) of the Indian Penal Code, said Habibganj police station in-charge Manish Raj Bhadoria, according to PTI. The complainant Khare is Madhya Pradesh BJP SC Cell media in-charge.

She had posted a caricature on social media depicting a half-naked man, presumably the accused, urinating on another man. The man who was shown urinating was wearing a white shirt, a black cap, and his khaki shorts were lying on the floor. She captioned the post: ‘MP mein ka ba?’, meaning what is happening in MP. The singer has gained popularity from her song ‘UP me ka ba’.

After the FIR was filed, Rathore took to Twitter to hit out at the BJP. “In Madhya Pradesh’s Sidhi district, a BJP leader urinated on the head of a tribal man. An FIR has been lodged against me by the media in charge of BJP’s Scheduled Caste Morcha for criticising this incident. Amazing is their love for tribals.”

In February this year, Rathore was served a notice over her song ‘UP mein ka ba’, which criticised the Uttar Pradesh government over the death of a mother-daughter duo in Kanpur Dehat during an eviction drive.

In a separate FIR, Indore Police booked tribal leader Lokesh Mujalda and journalist Abhishekh. A. on the complaint of RSS activist Surendra Singh Alawa for sharing social media posts containing cartoons against the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Swayamsevak Sangh in the backdrop of the urination incident, police said.

The cartoon, shared on Facebook and Twitter, showed a person in the RSS uniform in an allegedly objectionable manner as per the complainant, a police official said.

The duo has been booked under Sections 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of public peace), 505 (ii) (statements conducing to different classes) of the Indian Penal Code as well as under the provisions of the Information Technology Act.

After the FIR, Abhishek wrote on Twitter, “Friends, I shared a cartoon about the Sidhi incident. The cartoon has hurt the sentiments of some friends. Therefore, the cartoon has been deleted and I apologize. I have no intention of hurting anyone.”

The Madhya Pradesh urination incident has led to massive outrage, which forced the BJP government in the state to arrest the accused and slap him with the stringent National Security Act. Substantial evidence has emerged to show accused Pravesh Shukla’s links with the BJP. With the Assembly polls a few months, the Madhya Pradesh BJP government has swung into action to shield itself from any perceived inaction. Shukla was arrested a day after the incident, and his house was demolished. Besides, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan invited the victim to his house to wash his feet and apologise for the incident.

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