Pune: Dancer, three others booked for Lavani at Lal Mahal

PUNE: The Faraskhana police on Friday night registered a case of injuring or defiling a place of worship with the intent to insult the religion of any class and voluntarily obstructing any public servant in the discharge of his public functions against a popular dancer for performing a Lavani dance on the premises of the historic Lal Mahal.
The police said the dancer and her accomplices performed the Lavani dance at Lal Mahal on April 16 and shot a video. The video went viral after the dancer and others uploaded it on different social networking sites. People at large and political parties condemned the act.
Lal Mahal’s security guard Rakesh Sonawane (37) of Mangalwar Peth lodged a complaint in this regard with the police. Sonawane said he tried to stop the dancer and her accomplices from dancing and shooting the video after seeing her dancing but they did not listen to him.
Senior inspector Rajendra Landge told TOI, “We had summoned the dancer to the police station but her parents informed us that she has gone to Kashmir. We will summon her to the police station after she returns to Pune”.
“As of now, it has been revealed that the dancer did not use loudspeaker or traditional musical instruments while dancing on a Lavani on the Lal Mahal premises. We suspect that she has used an online application where music is played in the background and one can dance on the music,” he said adding, “We will verify the entire incident after questioning the dancer and her accomplices.”
On Friday and Saturday, political parties staged a protest outside the Lal Mahal and demanded criminal action against the dancer. The Lal Mahal, located in Kasba Peth, is one of the most famous monuments in Pune city.