Six complaints against JLF organisers, authors

Kavita Srivastava, national secretary of People's Union for Civil Liberties, has revealed that six complaints have been registered against four authors: Amitava Kumar, Hari Kunzru, Jeet Thayil and Ruchir Joshi, besides the organisers of the Jaipur Literture Festival, for hurting religious sentiments and conspiracy.

The four authors were asked to leave Jaipur after they read out passages from Salman Rushdie's controversial novel 'The Satanic Verses.'

Of these complaints, five are from Jaipur and one is from Ajmer, Srivastava told mediapersons.

According to Srivastava, the complaints have come from various political parties: Muzaffar from Ajmer, a primary member of the Congress party, Jaipur residents Daulat Khan belonging to the minority morcha of the BJP, and Abdul Latif, state secretary of Milli Council, have lodged the complaints.

Of these cases, four will be heard in Jaipur on Tuesday and the courts will take a view if they are suitable to be FIRs or not.

So far no case has been lodged. However, Sanjoy Roy, the director of the Jaipur Literature Festival, said he had received no word on the matter so far.