Published On : Thu, Mar 22nd, 2018

Hardik Pandya parody account posts derogatory Ambedkar tweet. Court orders FIR against cricketer

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Jaipur: A special SC/ST court in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur has directed police to file a First Information Report against cricketer Hardik Pandya for allegedly posting an offensive tweet about Dalit icon Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar.

A tweet that the all-rounder likely never posted.

The court’s directive came on a complaint filed by a local lawyer DR Meghwal, who accused Pandya of insulting Amedbkar and disrespecting Dalits by posting a ‘derogatory’ tweet.

According to Meghwal, Hardik Pandya used objectionable language while talking about BR Ambedkar on Twitter a few months ago.

However, the tweet that Meghwal seems to be referring to came from a parody account and not Hardik Pandya’s official Twitter handle.

Meghwal’s petition claimed that Pandya had tweeted the following in Hindi: “Who Ambedkar? The person who drafted the constitution or the person who spread the disease of reservation in the country?”.

However, screenshots doing the rounds on Twitter showed that the tweet was posted not by Hardik Pandya’s verified handle (@hardikpandya7) but by a parody account with the handle @sirhardik3777.

The @sirhardik3777 handle was inaccessible as of last updating this report.

Meghwal for his part claims he initially approached the Luni police station in the Jodhpur district to register an FIR against Pandya for the alleged tweet.

However, Meghwal says, the Station House Officer of the police station refused to file an FIR against the international-level all-rounder following which the lawyer approached an SC/ST court in the Jodhpur district.

The Jodhpur court, taking note of Meghwal’s complaint, asked police to register an FIR against Pandya over the tweet.