Bengaluru: The high court Tuesday orally pulled up a private Kannada television channel over the alleged denigration of Hindu gods and mythological characters in its comedy show, while granting interim protection from arrest to the channel’s representatives.“Anything under the garb of free speech? You don’t deserve any indulgence. Such people do not deserve any indulgence who display gods and mythological figures as useless,” Justice M Nagaprasanna orally observed during the hearing of a petition filed by the channel seeking the quashing of the investigation against it.The judge granted an interim order directing police not to arrest the channel representatives, subject to the condition that they co-operated in the investigation.The petitioners submitted that the episode in question in the reality show did not feature a direct portrayal of Hindu deities, but was a skit about the rehearsal of a play that some villagers sought to put up about a scene from the Mahabharata, and the same was not meant to hurt religious sentiments.The FIR was originally registered for an offence punishable under Section 299 of BNS at Hubballi, and the same was transferred to Subramanyapura police station, Bengaluru city. One Prasanth Shashidhar Nargund is the complainant in this case.
