Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri has reacted to the relief granted to him by the Delhi High Court in a contempt of court case against him. On Monday, the court discharged the filmmaker in the case after he tendered an in-person unconditional apology for his old tweets against Orissa High Court Chief Justice Muralidhar. On Tuesday, Agnihotri shared a media statement on the case and also criticised the media reports about it, calling them ‘biased’.
Taking to Twitter on Tuesday morning, Agnihotri wrote, “My statement on yesterday's developments in the Delhi High Court, in the suo motu criminal contempt case. The way it’s reported by some biased media and political parties against me is totally false.”
He posted screenshots of his long media statement wherein he presented his side of the incident. “Five years ago, America based 'Drishtikone' published an article on Gautam Navlakha who was arrested on serious charges of threatening the integrity and sovereignty of India. I merely posted the article as a tweet thread, citing the source and the author. Thereafter, the Delhi High Court issued a suo moto contempt of court against Drishtikone, Shri S. Gurumurthy and myself. The article was taken down by the author with an apology immediately, followed by Shri S Gurumurthy unconditionally apoligising in the court. This left me with no locus standi and I was morally and intellectually obligated to apologise for sharing information from a source that had retracted the article and apologised. To project it otherwise, as a fight for justice and courage, would be pretentious and misplaced. Playing to the gallery by turning this issue into what it is not, is untruthful and sheer waste of creative energy. I have utmost respect for the Indian judiciary and would never say or write anything that is unsubstantiated and which goes against the sanctity of our judiciary which is one of the pillars of our nation,” the statement read.
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Agnihotri added that he has been ‘entangled’ in various legal cases over the last few years, saying that it was an effort to ‘distract’ him from his goals. He added, “Entangling an individual in legal cases, discrediting them through fake news and consuming their time and energy in reacting all the time, thereby distracting them from their pursuit, is not uncommon in our democracy. Since the release of The Kashmir Files, I have been hounded by various sections of extremists, separatists, media, political parties, dangerous communal fact-checkers, other vested agencies, film festival jury members, and their trolls and bots - both online and in real life. There are open fatwas and threats against me. I have been served with multiple legal notices, from actors to fundamentalist religious bodies to court cases. My family, (specially my young daughter) is being abused and threatened openly, on dog- whistling by certain communal fact-checkers and their allies. This is my reality and all of it is in the public domain.”
Adding that he is risking his life and resources for what he believes in, the filmmaker outlined his future gals and said he would pursue them ‘unfazed’. “I have consistently risked my life and resources for projects that highlight the truth of our civilisation. From Urban Naxals to The Kashmir Files, my team and I have fought a unique battle.”
The statement listed a few future projects the filmmaker is involved in currently, including his upcoming flm The Vaccine War, a film on the Partition called The Delhi Files, another film titled The Fall of Nizam, as well as a docu series on Kashmir called Kashmir Unreported. The filmmaker added he would also be establishing a world class Indic research unit, which he said would be the first in Indian cinema.
Agnihotri had put out tweets against Justice Muralidhar. Pursuant to the tweets, Agnihotri had put alleging bias against Justice Muralidhar. As a result, contempt of court proceedings were initiated against the director. Agnihotri’s tweets were regarding the judge granting relief to activist Gautam Navlakha in the Bhima Koregaon case.
