Mumbai Police have issued a third summons to stand-up comic Kunal Kamra, whose show parodying deputy Chief Minister and Shiv Sena Chief Eknath Shinde has earned him the wrath of the state. While issuing the summons on Tuesday, the Khar police asked Kamra to present himself at the police station by April 15.
The Khar police have also begun to record the statements of audience members present at Kamra’s show titled ‘Naya Bharat. ’ They have issued summons to more than 20 witnesses present at the Habitat studio, at Hotel Unicontinental, in Khar, where the show was recorded on February 2.
A zero First Information Report (FIR) was initially registered against Kamra at the MIDC police station on March 24 on a complaint filed by Shiv Sena MLA Murji Patel. On Saturday, three more FIRs were registered by the Khar police against Kamra, on complaints from Shiv Sena functionaries in different places in North Maharashtra.
The summons have been issued under CRPC Section 179, authorizing the police to bring in the witnesses and interrogate them, as the authorities are looking into Kamra’s purported comments regarding Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde during the program.
YP Singh, a former IPS officer turned lawyer, mentioned that the police are within their rights to call one or two attendees from the show and record their statements as witnesses. However, since the video evidence is available in this case, he also stressed that summoning the attendees was not necessary..