Surat court issues bailable warrants against Anurag Kashyap for non-appearance

SURAT: A court in Surat, in the Indian state of Gujarat, has issued bailable warrants against filmmaker Anurag Kashyap. He did not appear before the court on Monday in a case over alleged derogatory remarks about the Brahmin community.

The court has fixed 24 December as the date for the next hearing. Following the warrants, Kashyap will have to obtain bail from the court to avoid going to jail.

According to the case, on 16 April last year a user on the social media website X objected to a post by Kashyap. He replied: “What have you achieved by becoming a Brahmin?” The Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal allege that the remark insulted the entire Brahmin community.

The reaction came when Brahmin organisations were demanding a boycott of the film “Phule”, which is based on the lives of Jyotiba Phule and Savitribai Phule. These organisations said the film was anti-Brahmin.

According to Kamlesh Raval, lawyer for the organisations, Kashyap was first asked to appear for verification, but he did not. A summons was then issued. On the court’s order, a public summons was published in a leading newspaper’s Mumbai edition, but Kashyap still did not appear.

The lawyer claims that the post could have fuelled hostility between different religious and caste groups.

Besides Surat, cases were also registered over the remarks in Jaipur and Varanasi. Kashyap later apologised on X. He wrote that in his anger he had forgotten decency, that he would work on his anger so that this would not happen again, and that he sought forgiveness. Earlier, he had also issued a statement on Instagram saying that he would not take back his words.