By IANS
Jodhpur : A court here has issued a contempt of court notice to police for not taking action against those behind a controversial poster depicting Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje as a goddess.
A lower court here Friday issued the notice to the Udai Kothi police station here for not registering a first information report (FIR) after some fans of the chief minister brought out a controversial poster depicting her as a goddess.
Sheetal Kumari, wife of senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former external affair minister Jaswant Singh, had lodged a strong protest against the poster.
In a petition to the court, she said the police had been directed on June 20 to register an FIR and present an investigation report before the court but they gave a report without registering any FIR.
Police said in their reply that they had already submitted an investigation report to the court but since they had not been given any separate orders for registering an FIR they did not do so.
After hearing both parties, Judicial Magistrate Bulaki Das Vyas issued the contempt of court notice to police and asked them to file a replywith in 10 days.
Sheetal Kumari had on June 19 filed a complaint in the court pleading action against BJP legislator Suryakanta Vyas and poster designer Hemant Bohra under Section 120 b (punishment for criminal conspiracy) and Section 298 (uttering words etc. with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The court had then ordered the local police to file a report on the poster issue.
Bohra, a Jodhpur-based admirer of Raje, had brought out the poster in April, showing Raje as Annapurna, the goddess of harvest, showering blessings on her ministers.
Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former deputy prime minister L.K. Advani and BJP president Rajnath Singh were shown as the Hindu trinity of Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva respectively, blessing Raje.
Two ministers in Raje’s cabinet – Laxmi Narayan Dave and Pratap Singh Singhvi – were shown as Kuber and Indra, the gods of wealth and rains respectively.
Bohra has said that Raje fully deserved the “divine status” for all that she has done for Rajasthan.
Such praise from admirers is not new for Raje. A junior minister in her cabinet last year proudly declared that he worshipped Raje as a goddess, while a fan had earlier penned ‘Vasundhara Chaleesa’.