The Bombay High Court has directed the Mumbai Police not to take any coercive steps for three weeks against filmmaker Mahesh Manjrekar and two producers of his latest Marathi film Nay Varan Bhat Loncha, Kon Nay Koncha in connection with a first information report (FIR) registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) over alleged obscene scenes involving a minor in the trailer of the film.
On Tuesday, Justices Prasanna Varale and Suresh Tavade, after hearing the petition, gave a big relief to Mahesh Manjrekar, Narendra, and Shreyans Hirawa.
About the matter:
On the complaint of Seema Deshpande, president of the NGO Bhartiya Stree Shakti, and after the order of a special court in February, the Mahim police had registered an FIR against filmmaker Mahesh Manjrekar for filming obscene scenes on minor children in his upcoming Marathi film.
Meanwhile, after the case was registered, Mahesh Manjrekar and the producers had asked for interim protection from arrest or any coercive step in the court, saying that they will cooperate with the investigators.
The case was registered under the POCSO Act.
The police registered an FIR against Mahesh Manjrekar and others under Section 292, 34 of the Indian Penal Code, Section 14 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act (POCSO), and Section 67, 67B of the IT Act. had.
The issue was raised after the trailer of the film was released. When the trailer of the film was released, then National Commission for Women (NCW) chief Rekha Sharma wrote a letter to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
In the letter, the NCW chief called for a ban on the open circulation of sexually explicit material involving minors on social media platforms, stating that the trailer of the Mahesh Manjrekar film shows sexually explicit material and includes minors in an objectionable manner.
