CBI goes ‘aata majhi satakli’ on Singham Returns bribery charges, recommends case against producers

Almost exactly a year after the release of the film Singham Returns, there’s trouble in store for its producers. According to a report by the Indian Express , the Mumbai unit of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has recommended registering a case against the producers on allegations that they bribed former chief of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) Rakesh Kumar to get the film cleared. [caption id=“attachment_2392570” align=“alignleft” width=“380” class=" “] Image courtesy: www.singhamreturns.in[/caption] What’s more, an authorized agent for the production house, in his statement to the CBI, is reported to have said that director Rohit Shetty paid more than Rs 2 lakhs to get the censor certificate issued. Shetty was also one of the producers of the film. According to his statement, Kumar had said to Shetty that he was under “tremendous pressure” from the Information & Broadcasting Ministry not to issue a certification to the film. The reason for this was said to be a fear of hurting religious sentiments. Before the release of the film, Mid Day had reported that the CBFC had received more than 100 e-mails claiming that the film showed Hindus in a bad light. While some had asked for certain scenes to be deleted, some had asked for a complete ban on the film. According to an article in The Telegraph , Singham Returns had been cleared within three days, as revealed in information from an RTI query. The same RTI application had revealed, on the other hand, that the board took between 104 to 360 days to clear at least 10 films in the previous three years. Rakesh Kumar had been involved in a bribery controversy earlier as well, when it was alleged that an agent, Shripati Mishra, had demanded Rs 70,000 for issuing a censor certificate to a regional film from Chhattisgarh named “Mor Dauki ke Bihav.” In August last year, the CBI had arrested him in connection with the case. You can read more about the case in this PTI report put up on the website of Economic Times.