AIB’s Tanmay Bhat faces FIR over Modi meme

All India Bakchod’s promoter Tanmay Bhat is in controversy again and this time over making the prime minister’s meme.

The Mumbai Police Cyber Cell today registered an FIR against AIB after he tweeted a post on PM Narendra Modi. The FIR was registered under section 500 of the IPC (defamation) and 67 of the IT act (punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form).

It all started with an AIB tweet about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s doppelganger (lookalike) spotted at a railway station. They later added a meme about the PM by using the Snapchat dog filter alongside the previous picture. Initially, this irked some Twitter users followed by a backlash against the comedian.

A Twitter user, Reetesh Maheshwari, called the meme an "obnoxious prank" and sought legal action against the group. He also tagged the Mumbai Police handle.

Bhat later deleted the tweet. He, however, defended the meme in a post on the group's website and also took to Twitter to make his case, complaining about what he called "the lack of rational reasoning."

Last year, the comedy group had found itself at the centre of a controversy over Bhat's "roast" of cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and singer Lata Mangeshkar.