“Since the petitioner might be required to join the ongoing investigations, his prayer for release of passport and to allow him to travel abroad will be considered after the investigations are complete,” a Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice N Kotiswar Singh said after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted on behalf of the Maharashtra government that the probe will take two more weeks.
Senior advocate Abhinav Chandrachud, representing Allahbadia, said the YouTuber’s livelihood was being affected as he was unable to travel abroad to meet guests lined up for interviews for his show. “His livelihood is interviewing personalities for which he has to travel continuously,” Chandrachud submitted.
As Mehta said “investigation will take two weeks to complete,” the Bench said it would consider the petitioner’s plea for release of his passport after two weeks.
Earlier, Chandrachud told the top court that as directed by it Allahbadia has filed an undertaking that he would maintain decency in his ‘The Ranveer Show’. He joined the investigation on March 7 and recorded his statements, Chandrachud said.
On behalf of YouTuber Ashish Chanchlani — also booked following the controversy — senior advocate Ajay Tiwari told the Bench that his client had also joined the investigation. He requested the Bench to club all the FIRs against him and transfer the same to one police station.
Allahbadia has also made the same prayer and transfer of all the cases to Mumbai.
However, the Bench said it would consider their pleas after two weeks and posted the matter for April 21.
Ranveer’s remarks on parents and sex on comedian Samay Raina’s YouTube show ‘India’s Got Latent’ triggered a controversy, leading to several FIRs being lodged against him in Maharashtra, Assam and Rajasthan.
In the eye of a storm over his comment about parents and sex during an episode of stand-up show ‘India’s Got Latent’, the podcaster got a major relief on February 18 from the Supreme Court which protected him from arrest in multiple FIRs lodged against him.
Noting that there was a legislative vacuum on the issue, the Bench had said it would like to do something, if the Centre didn’t do anything. It had issued notice to the Centre and sought the assistance of Attorney General R Venkataramani and Solicitor General Mehta.
