HC to hear plea against Netflix series 'Sacred Games' on Thursday

Pic Courtesy: Still from Sacred Games

New Delhi: A petition to seek the removal of certain content from the web series "Sacred Games" on the grounds of insulting former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi will come up for hearing in the Delhi High Court on Thursday.

The plea, filed on Wednesday, was mentioned before a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C. Hari Shankar but the bench recused itself from hearing the matter and listed it before another bench.

The plea filed by lawyer Nikhil Bhalla through advocate Shashank Garg sought the removal of two contents that he maintained "tarnished" the image of the former Prime Minister.

The lawyer claimed that the series incorrectly depicts historical events like the Bofors and Shah Bano cases, the Babri Masjid case and the communal riots.

On Tuesday, a Congress activist in West Bengal filed a police complaint against actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui, over-the-top media services provider Netflix, and the makers of "Sacred Games" for "insulting and abusing" Rajiv Gandhi.

The complainant said that the show had a scene in which Siddiqui, playing the protagonist, is seen and heard "abusing Rajiv Gandhi, calling him 'fattu', which was shown as pu*** in the subtitles".

The series is based on author Vikram Chandra's novel of the same name. It has been directed by Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane.

The opening scene hits out at the Congress as there are episodes on Emergency imposed by the Indira Gandhi government, as well as the Bofors scandal and the Shah Bano case that created a storm during Rajiv Gandhi's tenure as Prime Minister.