Comedian Kiku Sharda who is best known as ‘Palak’ of role in ‘Comedy Nights with Kapil’ was arrested in charge of hurting religious feelings of a group of devotees of controversial godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. Sharda expressed his unhappiness of being made only accountable for the act.
 

“As an actor I do what I am supposed to do. I was told this the script, this is the idea. A lot of people are involved making a product. I am the executer of the act to present it on screen. I executed something what I had been given to perform, how I am solely responsible for that? The burden should be shared by them who are making this product. I was taken aback that by seeing that I am the only being accountable for the act! All those people are equally responsible who has conceived the idea. I find myself alone when this happened. I am upset and not so happy about this.” He stated at the press conference to condemn Sharda’s arrest.  
 

Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) and Cine and TV artistes Association( CINTAA ) came together to condemn the arrest of comedian Kiku Sharda. Among the artists present were Amit Behl, Renuka Shahane, Ashutosh Rana, Manoj and Seema Pahwa, Kamlesh Pandey, Salim Arif, Lubna Salim and Vrajesh Hirjee. 
 

Actress Renuka Sahane said, “Mimicry is based on imitating other people. Kiku is an innocent person. He is not a person who would ever hurt anybody intentionally. 295 A the law which was applied to Kiku, the law says intentionally hurts person’s religious belief. Who would define the intention here? It is high time to define things about which how many religion we have in our country and if we should consider every single new introducing view point as a religion or not”       
 

The artistes also appealed for introspection into the Section 295 A of the Indian Penal Code, under which Sharda was arrested. Rang de Basanti author Pandey, the president of FWICE, said that Sharda's case was a big question on freedom of expression in the nation.