NEW DELHI: A Muslim comedian has been charged in India for ‘jokes’ he did not tell an audience, but on suspicions that he was ‘going to’.
A comedian named Munawar Faruqui is facing legal action in two Indian states. In Madhya Pradesh, he was detained for allegedly making indecent remarks about Hindu religious sentiments during a rehearsal of a comedy show. In Uttar Pradesh, he is accused of insulting the Indian Home Minister Amit Shah.
Despite police admitting they have no proof or witnesses confirming that the 28-year old comedian cracked ‘indecent’ jokes, Faruqui remains in jail, having twice been denied bail by the courts.
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“Without any evidence, and without conducting any primary investigations, the police have registered this case against Munawar under political pressure of the ruling party. There is no material, nothing at all which backs up these allegations,” Faruqui’s lawyer, Anshuman Tiwari was quoted saying.
In one of his shows, Faruqui cracked a joke about his native Gujarat state and the deadly religious riots of 2002, in which more than 1000 people, most of them Muslims, were killed.
