Odia film actor Buddhaditya Mohanty sparked a political row with his recent social media post on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and gangster Lawrence Bishnoi. In his controversial post, Mohanty said that Bishnoi’s “next targets” are likely to be Rahul Gandhi and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi.
The actor wrote on social media, “Germany had the Gestapo… Israel has the Mossad… USA has the CIA… now India has Lawrence Bishnoi… next in the list should be Owaisi and Rahul Gandhi.”
This post by Mohanty received massive backlash and the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), which is the student wing of the Congress party, registered a police complaint against him.
State NSUI president Udit Pradhan filed the complaint at Capital police station on Friday, demanding action against Mohanty for the post, which has now been deleted.
“In the social media post, Mohanty said that after killing NCP leader Baba Siddique, gangster Lawrence Bishnoi’s next target should be Congress MP Rahul Gandhi. We cannot tolerate such a remark against our leader,” said Pradhan, as quoted by PTI.
NSUI also submitted a screenshot of the social media post along with the complaint. The police is currently investigating the matter.
After the backlash, Mohanty issued a public apology on social media, saying that his intention wasn’t to demean Rahul Gandhi in any way.
“My last post regarding Rahul Gandhiji..was never to target..harm, demean him in any way..nor write anything against him..unintentionally if I affected anyone’s sentiments..my intention was not this..I offer my sincere apologies..regards (sic),” he wrote.
This comes days after NCP leader and three-time MLA Baba Siddique was shot dead in Bandra by three armed assailants, allegedly associated with the Lawrence Bishnoi gang. Siddique sustained three bullet injuries and was rushed to the Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai, where he passed away on October 12.
In a social media post, the Lawrence Bishnoi gang claimed responsibility for his murder. One of the suspects arrested by the police claimed that they targetted Siddique for his alleged ties to don Dawood Ibrahim, and his close personal relationship with Bollywood actor Salman Khan, reported ANI.