After Poonam Pandey, Milind Soman booked for obscenity over nude beach photo

The South Goa district police on Friday booked model-actor Milind Soman for obscenity, days after a nude photograph of the former supermodel running on a Goa beach went viral.

A Goa Police spokesperson said that an FIR under Section 294 (obscenity) of the Indian Penal Code, along with other relevant sections of the Information Technology Act, has been registered against Soman. "The FIR has been registered at the Colva police station in South Goa district," the spokesperson said.

On November 4, on the occasion of his 55th birthday, actor-fitness enthusiast Milind had posted a nude photo himself on his Instagram handle, running on a Goa beach. The post was flooded with comments praising the star for his fit body and some memes in goodnatured jest. 

Milind shared the image and wrote, "Happy birthday to me! 55 and running."

Take a look.

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Milind Usha Soman (@milindrunning) on Nov 3, 2020 at 7:59pm PST

Calling out netizens' double standards and differential reactions to Milind Soman and Poonam Pandey's nude and partly-nude photos respectively, on November 5, launching an attack on those who are gender-biased and react differently to the ways of men and women, especially when it comes to nudity, film editor and screenplay writer Apurva Asrani wrote on his Twitter handle "our women are labelled sluts if they go nude, men are not."

His tweet read, "Our women are labelled sluts if they go nude. Men are not. Actresses who `bare` are branded sex-sirens for life, rarely reaching respectable positions like Madhuri and Sridevi. Male actors though, get away with sex scenes and hairy-chest titillation. Face it. We are a sexist society." 

Our women are labelled sluts if they go nude. Men are not. Actresses who 'bare' are branded sex-sirens for life, rarely reaching respectable positions like Madhuri & Sridevi. Male actors though, get away with sex scenes & hairy-chest titillation. Face it. We are a sexist society.

— Apurva (@Apurvasrani) November 6, 2020

Asrani's post came after his Thursday`s contention on the microblogging site where he spoke about how our society and the netizens responded differently to Poonam Pandey and Milind Soman's partly nude and nude photos respectively. 

"#PoonamPandey & #MilindSoman both stripped down to their birthday suits in #Goa recently. Pandey partly, Soman completely. Pandey is in legal trouble--for obscenity. Soman is being lauded for his fit body at age 55. I guess we are kinder to our nude men than to our nude women," Apurva had observed in his earlier tweet.

#PoonamPandey & #MilindSoman both stripped down to their birthday suits in #Goa recently. Pandey partly, Soman completely. Pandey is in legal trouble--for obscenity. Soman is being lauded for his fit body at age 55. I guess we are kinder to our nude men than to our nude women.  pic.twitter.com/qQ9UFQIYXJ

— Apurva (@Apurvasrani) November 4, 2020

While on one hand, Milind for praised for his fit body, on the other, an FIR was filed against Poonam for shooting an "obscene video" on a Goa beach recently. In fact, a police inspector was suspended on Thursday following outrage over actor Poonam`s controversial photoshoot at a restricted dam site in South Goa.

Later, following outrage, after an FIR was filed against Poonam under section 294 (obscenity) of the Indian Penal Code and she was arrested in North Goa on November 5. Poonam however, was reportedly granted bail on Friday. 

(With inputs from IANS)