An official claimed on Sunday that police have filed a complaint against a young woman whose recordings of her dancing to Bollywood tunes outside a shrine in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhatarpur city went popular on social media.
A Bajrang Dal representative filed a complaint saying that she danced in an “obscene manner” outside the Janrai Toriya Mandir, a Ram-Sita temple, in order to “hurt the religious sensibilities of Hindus,” according to the police officer.
The woman’s Instagram account, where she uploaded these contentious dancing videos, has 2.5 million followers.
“Following the complaint lodged by Bajrang Dal leader Surendra Shivhare about the videos, the woman, identified as Aarti Sahu, has been booked under IPC section 298 (deliberate intention of hurting religious feelings of any person),” Chhatarpur’s Sub Divisional Officer of Police (SDOP) Shashank Jain said.
Further legal steps will be taken after the examination of the videos and other facts, he said.
In his complaint, Shivhare said that Sahu deliberately danced in an obscene manner in front of the temple, and shared the videos on social media with the intention of hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus.
In a video statement later, Sahu said she has been going to the temple since she was a child.
“I regret and seek apology from people if my videos hurt their sentiments. It was not my intention,” she said, adding that posting videos on Instagram was the main source of earning for her family.
Sahu said she has removed those videos from her Instagram account.
In the two viral videos, the woman was seen dancing on two Bollywood songs – ”Daye lage kabhi baye lage” from the movie “Cocktail” and ”Meri sham awadh se aayi hai” from the movie “Welcome to Karachi” in front of the temple gate.