Amid tight security arrangements film ‘Messenger of God (MSG)’ was today released in cinema halls and multiplexes in Haryana and UT Chandigarh, with no reports of any untoward incident so far.
Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh-starrer MSG-The Messenger was released Friday with thousands of policemen standing guard outside cinema halls where it was to be screened.
(Read: Experiencing MSG: The ‘film’ is excruciatingly awful only for non-believers)
INSO, the youth wing of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), staged protests and did not allow the movie to be screened at a few places in Sirsa and Karnal. INSO chief Digvijay Chautala, grandson of Haryana’s former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala, and his supporters were arrested for disruption of peace and protesting outside movie halls in Sirsa.
Followers of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh at a cinema hall in Sirsa. (Source: Praveen Khanna)The movie was not screened at Darpan cinema in Dabwali Assembly constituency of Sirsa, which is close to Punjab’s Bathinda district. The Punjab government had earlier imposed a complete ban on the screening of the movie to apprehend any law and order situation.
A similar situation was witnessed in Gurgaon and Kurukshetra districts as well, where hundreds of INSO workers protested against the movie’s release. In Gurgaon, over two dozen INSO workers were arrested for breaching peace. Since Thursday, the Kurukshetra district administration had deployed paramilitary force around the multiplexes where the movie was scheduled to release.
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Hundreds of INSO workers and supporters of the Dera Sacha Sauda sat outside two multiplexes in Karnal district. The Haryana Police had a tough time managing the situation and keeping both sides away to prevent any untoward incident. As tension started mounting, the multiplex management decided not to screen the movie.
Protests were also witnessed outside multiplexes in Rohtak district. However, the movie released in Rohtak with Dera supporters distributing sweets to celebrate. The movie was screened without interruption in Ambala district.
In Hisar, the movie was released in two multiplexes amidst tension. The district administration had imposed Section 144 around both multiplexes on Thursday to bar unauthorised and unlawful assembly of more than five people within a 200-metre radius of the multiplexes.
Thousands of dera followers thronged multiplexes and cinema halls across the state to watch MSG. In some movie halls, Dera followers stood as marshals to manage the crowd. To prevent any untoward incident, police personnel dressed in civvies were deployed inside various cinema halls.
