Kashmiri Muslim YouTuber Faisal Wani who posted a visual effects video of beheading ex-BJP leader Nupur Sharma has been granted bail by a court in Srinagar. Despite the prosecution citing that the video has a tendency to glorify violence especially among children and arguing against giving bail, the court granted him bail.
Faisal Wani had recreated the act of beheading ex-BJP Spokesperson Nupur Sharma through a VFX video for her comments quoting the Islamic scriptures about Muhammed and Ayesha. He had posted the video through his YouTube account Deep Fitness Pain. Journalist Aditya Raj Kaul had posted the snippet of the video in which Wani could be heard saying, “No action..Gustak-e-Rasool ki eki hi saza..Sarr Kalam (The punishment for blasphemy is beheading”).
He can also be seen beheading Nupur’s image with an axe and then throwing away the severed head with disgust. The video went viral and Jammu and Kashmir police booked Wani under Sections 505(2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill will between classes) and 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code. Frightened of facing legal action, Wani claimed innocence in another video saying, “Yesterday, I had made a VFX video about Nupur Sharma which went viral all over India. And an innocent person (beguna) such as me got implicated in the controversy.”
He was arrested on June 11 for trying to create a breach of peace among different classes/communities. Judicial Magistrate Ajay Kumar in Srinagar who heard his bail plea said that “The offences in question are not very severely punished under law and there is no reasonable possibility of the accused fleeing the course of justice” and granted him bail. The prosecution had argued that apart from “causing panic and alarm in general public has also a strong tendency for glorifying violence particularly among children” and granted him bail.
The video seems to have inspired Mohammed Riyaz Akhtari and Mohammed Ghouse who slit the throat of a poor Hindu tailor Kanhaiyalal Teli for merely sharing a post supporting Nupur Sharma. Akhtari and Ghouse used the same sentence used by Faisal Wani in his video, to threaten PM Modi and Nupur Sharma. In a video released by them after hacking Kanhaiyalal they said, “Listen, o Narendra Modi, you started the fire but we will douse it. Inshallah (Allah willing), I request my God that this dagger will reach your neck too and that bi**h (abusive reference to Nupur) too. All people of Udaipur should raise the slogan, ‘Gustak-e-nabi ki ek hi saaza, sar tan se juda’”.
Another Hindu, Umesh Kolhe, a medical professional was beheaded in Maharashtra, allegedly for sharing a post in support of Nupur Sharma. If this is the fate of those who ‘shared’ posts in support of Nupur, what would happen to her is an easy guess. While the likes of Zubair dog whistled to unleash violence against Hindus through a carefully edited clip of Nupur’s speech, the likes of Wani took it a step further by showing, albeit through animation, that “sare tan se juda” can be as easily done as it’s said.
