No offence meant

Bombay based author Murzban Shroff can breathe easy now that the police has filed an application before a local magistrate to close the case that a reader and activist had filed after taking offence at the use of the word "ghati” in his book Breathless in Bombay, reported The Times of India (TOI) on October 6, 2009.

Shroff’s work of fiction, which had been short listed for the 2009 Commonwealth Writers Pride Award, contains an "offensive” reference to Maharashtrians, according to complainant Vijay Mudras. Following a Dadar magistrate’s court order the N. M. Joshi Marg police registered a FIR (first information report) against the writer for "making, publishing and circulating inflammatory and derogatory remarks with communal overtones,” TOI had earlier reported on September 9. The writer then approached the Bombay High Court to have the case under section 153-B of the Indian Penal Code quashed. The following day the TOI reported that the city police had been ordered by the High Court not to take "any coercive action” against Shroff. His lawyer Mihir Desai said the book was a work of fiction and "an alcoholic character in one story uses the term and is reprimanded by the protagonist for it.” One has to look at the context, the lawyer said.

Murzban Shroff: ridiculous charge Photo courtesy: Mumbai Mirror

"I don’t think the word ‘ghati’ is derogatory,” the 47-year-old author told Mumbai Mirror (MM) on September 18. "To me, it means someone from the Ghats and is not aimed against any community. Personally, I never use the word.” Shroff pointed out that the book is over a year old and that there is no sign of communal disharmony so far. "It is ridiculous that I am being charged. If the police found me to be a threat to national security they would have arrested me,” he told MM.

Now that the police has told the High Court that it actually has no case against the author after realizing that it was a "villain in the book” who had used the word "ghati” and had been condemned by the fictional hero for doing so, the case should be withdrawn, as per TOI of October 6. However, Shroff has requested the High Court not to dispose of his matter till the magistrate finally passes an order closing the criminal case.