A Pune court prohibited the release of an under-production film on Nathuram Godse, the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi, in response to a civil suit alleging that it may “incite people on communal lines”.
The order was passed by civil magistrate K.M. Pingle ex-parte, as the defendants did not appear before the court despite notices to them.
Hemant Patil, an activist, had filed the suit seeking a ban on the film being produced by the Akhil Bhartiya Hindu Mahasabha.
The film, with a working title is Desh Bhakt (patriot) Nathuram Godse, was slated for release on January 30, but it has not yet hit the theatres.
Wajid Khan, Mr. Patil’s lawyer, said the defendants failed to appear on five occasions. So the court passed the order ex-parte (in the absence of one of the parties).
The suit said Mahasabha’s general secretary Munna Kumar Sharma had been quoted by the media as saying that “the film would show that Nathuram Godse, the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi, was a patriot while Gandhi was anti-Hindu”. — PTI
