Mumbai: Comedian Raju Srivastav has registered a First Information Report (FIR) with the Oshiwara police for defamation against an unidentified person for using his pictures with offensive messages against Amit Shah, the chief of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and his son Jay and circulating it on WhatsApp.
As per the complaint by Srivastav, “I have come to know that since the past two weeks, an unknown accused is persistently circulating offensive messages using my pictures on WhatsApp. The offensive material is not only false but frivolous, defamatory, abusive and insinuative and has been done with the intention to insult and libel me and cause a scandal by slandering and slurring my character.”
An FIR has been registered for defamation (Section 500) of the Indian Penal Code(IPC) and sending offensive messages through a communication device (Section 66(A) the Information Technology Act, 2000.
Speaking to the Free Press Journal, senior police inspector Subhash Khanvilkar Oshiwara police station said, “As of now, the images are being circulated only on WhatsApp. We have not yet received any information regarding the source of the messages or the content being circulated on other social media platforms. The culprit is unidentified. We are seeking a legal opinion on it.”Srivastav is a brand ambassador of the Swachhta Abhiyan campaign launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
