Actor Ranveer Singh booked for insulting 'Chavundi Daiva'
Bengaluru (PTI): The High Grounds police have registered a case against Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh following a complaint alleging "insult to religious sentiments" during a public event, police said on Thursday.
The FIR was registered on Wednesday based on a complaint lodged by Prashanth Methal (46), a Bengaluru-based lawyer, after an Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACJM) court referred the private complaint for investigation.
The accused has been booked under Sections 196, 299 and 302 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023.
According to the complaint, the incident pertains to the closing ceremony of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) held in Goa on November 28, 2025.
The complainant stated that Ranveer Singh, while present on stage and in the presence of the lead actor of 'Kantara: Chapter-1', allegedly performed acts that mocked and insulted the sacred Bhoota Kola tradition practiced in Coastal Karnataka.
The complainant said he is a devotee of 'Chavundi Daiva', a revered guardian spirit worshipped in Bhoota Kola rituals, and that the deity is also his family deity, which he has worshipped since childhood.
He alleged that the actor imitated the divine expressions of Panjurli/Guliga Daiva in a "crude, comical and derogatory manner" and verbally referred to the sacred Chavundi Daiva as a "female ghost." Despite an alleged request not to perform the Daiva act, the accused enacted an emotional Chavundi Daiva scene from 'Kantara: Chapter 1' on stage, the lawyer said.
"Chavundi Daiva is not a female ghost but a powerful and fierce guardian spirit symbolising justice, protection, and divine feminine energy, and holds deep religious and cultural significance in the coastal region," Methal said in his complaint.
Referring to the deity as a ghost was described in the complaint as "blasphemous and a serious insult to Hindu religious beliefs and practices". The complainant alleged that the accused, being a widely followed public figure, performed the act on an international platform with knowledge that it would hurt the religious sentiments of devotees.
The complaint further stated that a video of the alleged performance went viral on social media, causing grave mental agony, anger and resentment among devotees.
The complainant said he became aware of the incident after viewing the video on the social media.
"The act of the accused was deliberate, intentional and malicious, intended to outrage religious feelings," the complainant alleged.
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BJP writes to EC about 'non-deployment' of central forces to avert clash
Kolkata (PTI): The BJP on Sunday wrote to the Election Commission alleging that its workers were not given security and came under attack while travelling to attend Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally at Brigade Parade Ground on March 14 and sought action over the alleged non-deployment of central forces by police.
In a letter to the poll panel, BJP leader Shishir Bajoria claimed that buses carrying party workers to the rally were targeted with bricks in the Girish Park area of north Kolkata, leaving several activists injured, some of whom were hospitalised.
Trouble broke out in the area when BJP activists objected to the putting up of flexes which read 'Boycott BJP', before the house of state minister Shashi Panja and tore down the flexes. Heavy brick batting followed as both sides regrouped along Central Avenue, and the window panes on the ground-floor room of Panja's residence were damaged in stone pelting.
The minister claimed she and several of her party members were injured in the brickbatting by rally-bound BJP supporters.
In the letter, the BJP alleged that despite a substantial deployment of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) ahead of the elections, the forces were not present at the site of the disturbance to ensure the safety of its workers and leaders.
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Putting the onus on TMC for the violence, the letter said, "A large number of buses bringing BJP 'karyakartas' to attend the rally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Brigade Parade Ground were subjected to large-scale brick-batting and violence, resulting in several BJP leaders sustaining injuries, many of whom had to be hospitalised."
Attaching purported photos and videos of the clash to back up their claims of TMC instigation, the letter said: "What was particularly of grave concern was that despite a big deployment of CAPF well before the polls, their complete absence at the spot during the disturbance, or in any part of the city of Kolkata."
"We would like to put on record that the presence of Kolkata Police at the spot of disturbance establishes the fact that they had an advance intelligence report of possible violence and yet kept the CAPF out," the BJP leader said in the letter to the CEC Gyanesh Kumar, and Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal, Manoj Kumar Agarwal.
"Given the seriousness of the incident and the injuries sustained by several of our karyakarta, it raises concerns among citizens regarding the effective deployment of CAPF for preventing violence, and ensuring a free and fair electoral environment," the letter said.
"We request your good office to kindly take the strongest possible action against those who were responsible for this non-deployment of CAPF, resulting in this incident and ensure that in future deployment is carried out in a manner that truly serves its intended purpose of area domination, confidence building, and timely intervention wherever law and order situations arises from now till the elections are over," the letter said.
The BJP also reminded the commission that a party delegation had earlier met the full bench of the poll body on March 9 and raised concerns that CAPF personnel were being deployed for route marches in peaceful areas and highways instead of in locations requiring voter confidence-building measures.
At least eight persons, including a police officer, were injured in brickbatting, which broke out half an hour before the arrival of the Prime Minister at the Brigade Rally. The clash continued for about an hour as both sides fought a pitched battle on the road and nearby by-lanes before reinforcements brought the situation under control.
