Screenings of Umar Khalid documentary in Pune, Nashik cancelled after police say events ‘illegal’

Screenings of a documentary on jailed activist Umar Khalid, scheduled for Saturday in Pune and Nashik, were cancelled after the police allegedly told the organisers that such events would be “illegal” as the censor board had yet to certify the film.

Khalid has been in judicial custody for six years in connection with the conspiracy case related to the 2020 Delhi riots. The trial in the case is yet to begin.

On Sunday, the Law and Society Committee at the National Law School of India University in Bengaluru told The Hindu that it had cancelled the screening of the documentary, Prisoner No: 626710 is Present, as it had not been cleared by the Central Board of Film Certification.

This came two days after the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad, cancelled a screening of the same documentary following an objection from the censor board.

Additionally, two Mumbai residents have alleged that a private screening they had organised on September 19 was cancelled after police intimidated the managers of two venues they had approached to host the event.

The film certification body had said on social media that public screening of a documentary that had not been certified by it “is a violation” of the 1952 Cinematograph Act “unless a specific exemption has been sought under the act”.

Screening cancelled in Pune

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