The Bombay high court today (March 1) stayed the arrest of filmmaker Mahesh Manjrekar in the case of allegedly sexually explicit scenes involving children in his latest Marathi film, Nay Varan Bhat Loncha Kon Nay Koncha. A case was registered against Manjrekar and the film’s producers, Narendra Hirawat and Shreyans Hirawat, under sections 292 and 34 of the IPC, section 14 of the POCSO and sections 67 and 67B of the Information Technology Act.
Last month, Manjrekar had made an application in the high court to quash the February 24 FIR lodged by the Mahim (Bombay) police on the order of a POCSO court, where an NGO had filed a complaint about the trailer of the film, and to grant him interim relief against arrest. A high court bench of Justices Prasanna Varale and Surendra Tavade directed the police not to take any coercive action against Manjrekar or the film’s team for three weeks under the POCSO. The court took notice of the fact that the film did not have the allegedly obscene scene and it was only part of the trailer which trailer was taken down from YouTube, and that the film was released after getting the CBFC’s certificate.
