Police protection for Ram Gopal Varma

After his inflammatory tweets about Lord Ganesha, filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma gets police protection

About half a dozen police officials have been stationed outside filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma’s residence in Versova.

Ram Gopal Varma. Pic/Suresh KK

Protection was given to the filmmaker after a Hindu right wing group protested against Varma’s comments on twitter that ridiculed Lord Ganesha. A police complaint against the filmmaker has been lodged at the Versova police station for having hurt religious sentiments.

A police official posted outside Varma’s residence said, “Ram Gopal Varma has been offered police protection, but he is not here right now. He will be in Mumbai only after September 12.”

On August 29, Varma had tweeted, “Can someone tell me if today is the day Ganesha was originally born or is it the day his dad cut his head off?’’ This was followed by a few other tweets about Lord Ganesha. Varma’s tweets didn’t go down well with Ganesha devotees and Hindu organisations after which several complaints were filed against him. The filmmaker tweeted an apology on August 30, “All tweets I put on Ganesha were in my usual manner but unintended by me to hurt anyone’s sentiments... but if they did, I sincerely apologise.’’

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