The Uttar Pradesh government, on Friday, informed the Supreme Court that the cases pending in the state against the makers of Amazon Prime Video’s series ‘Tandav’ are closed.
A bench of Justice B R Gavai and Justice K V Viswanathan was told by the Uttar Pradesh government that the cases that were registered in or were transferred to the state stood closed, as closure reports had been filed by the authorities.
“In all the FIRs in UP, final reports have been filed. There were three FIRs in UP. In all the three we have filed closure reports”, an advocate appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government told the court.
The advocate representing the Maharashtra government told the bench that the FIR registered at Ghatkopar had been transferred to Uttar Pradesh. However, the advocate for the Madhya Pradesh government informed the court that in April the investigation in the subject FIRs was going on and sought some time to file a status report.
Additional Solicitor General S V Raju told the bench that insofar as Delhi is concerned the matter had become infructuous. “As far as the NCT of Delhi is concerned, we have transferred the case to Lucknow. Nothing survives as far as we are concerned. We are not doing any investigation,” ASG Raju told the bench.
Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for petitioner Amazon Amazon India Original’s head Aparna Purohit, said cases are pending only in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh.
The court was hearing a plea of Aparna Purohit, who had approached the top court against the Allahabad High Court order that denied anticipatory bail to her in the investigation against the web series ‘Tandav’.
The high court on February 25, 2021, declined to give protection from arrest to Purohit by dismissing her anticipatory bail application.
In March 2021, Purohit was granted interim anticipatory bail by the top court.
The Uttar Pradesh Police had filed an FIR against the top Amazon Prime executive for derogatory depiction of Hindu deities and promoting religious enmity through the series.