NEW DELHI: A first information report (FIR) has been filed in Ludhiana’s Daba Police station against filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma at for allegedly criticising the head of the Dera Sacha Sauda Sant Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insaan and his film MSG - The Messenger through Twitter.

The complaint was filed by Jasbir Singh of Lohara village under Section 298 (uttering words to hurt religious sentiments) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 66 (sending offensive messages through communication services and devices) of the Information Technology Act.

Varma reportedly already has a complaint lodged against him for his tweet about Lord Ganesha on Ganesh Chaturthi.

Varma tweeted on 13 February allegedly negatively about the movie as well as about Singh making use of certain offensive words.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore today told the Rajya Sabha that Section 5B of the Cinematograph Act 1952 and Cinematograph (Certification) Rules, 1983 and the Guidelines for certification of films lay down principles of certification of film which also includes that visuals or words contemptuous of religious groups are not presented.