New Delhi, March 28 The Madras High Court on Friday granted interim protection to stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra, who is facing multiple criminal cases over the "traitor" jibe towards Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, till April 7.
A bench of Justice Sunder Mohan was hearing a plea filed by Kamra seeking transit anticipatory bail.
Earlier in the day, Kamra's plea was mentioned for urgent hearing before Justice Mohan, who assured to examine the matter post lunch session.
Mumbai’s MIDC police station on Monday registered a Zero FIR against Kamra for cracking an allegedly objectionable joke during a stand-up comedy show.
Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone 9 (Mumbai), Dixit Gedam said two offences have been registered at Khar police station.
One is against Kamra for derogatory comments, while the other is against people who vandalised the Unicontinental hotel where the shoot of Kamra's comedy show took place.
He further added that the investigation is underway.
Shiv Sena has condemned the "distasteful and defamatory" remarks made by Kamra during his recent performance at the Habitat Comedy Club in Mumbai, where he performed a parody song targeting Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
Police have already booked Kamra under section 356(2) (defamation) of the BNS. The Mumbai Police had served two summons to Kamra, who has not yet appeared to give his statement.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Legislative Council on Thursday accepted a privilege notice against Kamra and forwarded it to the Privileges Committee.
"I have accepted the notice of breach of privilege against Kunal Kamra and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sushma Andhare and have sent it to Privilege Committee chairman Prasad Lad. The future course of action regarding the motion will be decided by the committee," said Upper House Chairman Ram Shinde.
Kunal Kamra landed in trouble after giving a comic spin-off to a popular Hindi song in which he described Eknath Shinde as a "traitor", referring to the 2022 Maharashtra political crisis which eventually led to the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led state government.
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