Mumbai, 29 March

Cases registered against stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra in different parts of Maharashtra in connection with his 'traitor' jibe at Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde have been transferred to Khar police station in Mumbai, an official said on Saturday.

The studio where Kamra shot his video lampooning Shinde over the split in the Shiv Sena is located in Khar in the western part of the metropolis, he added. Shiv Sainiks had ransacked the studio and the hotel in which it is located on the night of 23 March .

'Three cases filed with police in Nashik Rural, Jalgaon, and Nashik (Nandgaon) have been transferred to Khar police station, where a case has already been registered against Kamra on the complaint of Shiv Sena MLA Murji Patel,' the official said.

In Manmad, which is part of Nashik Rural police, a case was filed against Kamra on the complaint of Shiv Sena leader Mayur Borse, while in Jalgaon, the complainant is Sanjay Digambar Bhujbal, who is the city chief of the Shinde-led party, he added.

The case in Nandgaon in Nashik was based on the complaint by hotelier Sunil Shankar Jadhav, the official informed.

'These cases will be probed collectively,' the Mumbai police official said.

The Madras High Court on Friday granted interim anticipatory bail to Kamra on the condition that he execute a bond to the satisfaction of the judicial magistrate at Vanur in Villupuram district in Tamil Nadu.

Kamra had submitted he moved to Tamil Nadu from Mumbai in 2021 and has been 'ordinarily a resident of this State (Tamil Nadu) since then' and that he feared arrest by Mumbai police.