“Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah”actor Munmun Dutta aka “Babijta Ji” has been booked under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for a casteist slur in a recent video. The FIR has been registered at Haryana’s Hansi.
Nitika Gahlaut, Superintendent of Police, Hansi, confirmed that the case was registered at City Police Station under Section 3(1) (u) of the SCs and STs Act. The case was registered on Thursday and the matter was under investigation, said the police.
The FIR has been registered following a complaint by Rajat Kalsan, convenor, National Alliance for Dalit Human Rights. Mr. Kalsan had given a complaint to Hansi Police against Ms. Dutta on May 11 and also produced a compact disc with the video in which she allegedly made objectionable comment against the Scheduled Caste. Ms. Dutta, in a make-up video, said that she wanted to look good and referred to a particular Scheduled Caste to say that she did not want to look like them.
She later apologised in writing in a post on social media platform blaming it on “language barrier” and saying that she was “genuinely misinformed about the meaning of the word”.
“I sincerely would like to apologise to every single person who has been unintentionally hurt by the usage of the word and I sincerely regret for the same,” said the post.