The Andhra Pradesh Police have detained a second stand-up comedian, Rafiq, over jokes related to Deputy Chief Minister and Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan.
This comes a day after the arrest of Hyderabad-based comedian Anudeep Katikala in a similar case, amid growing outrage and demands for action from supporters of the Jana Sena Party.
According to reports, Rafiq, who is a resident of Visakhapatnam, was called to the Vizag I Town police station from his home on the night of Thursday, April 16. Later, he was moved to Chilakalapudi, as confirmed by his family members.
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The Station House Officer of Chilakalapudi police station, Nabi, stated that Rafiq is currently in custody, but his formal arrest has not yet been recorded.
The case against Rafiq follows a complaint filed by Sayana Sivannarayana, a Jana Sena leader from Machilipatnam, at the Chilakalapudi police station. In the complaint, it was alleged that Rafiq made “offensive and insulting comments” against Pawan Kalyan and Minister Nara Lokesh, who is also the son of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
Before the complaint was filed, Rafiq's personal details, including his location and contact information, were shared publicly on the social media platform X. Following this, his videos began circulating online, which led to further calls for action against him.
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In the videos, Rafiq makes remarks about Pawan Kalyan's personal life. In one instance, he comments that both the people of Visakhapatnam and Pawan Kalyan's former spouses had “turned him down,” referring to the leader's loss in the Gajuwaka constituency during the 2019 elections.
In another clip, he compares Nara Lokesh to a Pokémon character. He also makes a joke involving a sexual reference while speaking about India–Russia relations, indirectly referring to Pawan Kalyan's wife, Anna Lezhneva.
The developments come amid a wider campaign by supporters of Pawan Kalyan and the Jana Sena Party over the past week. Fans had already been targeting Anudeep Katikala, issuing threats and demanding his arrest over jokes that referenced Pawan Kalyan's personal life and actor Ram Charan's marriage.
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In Anudeep's case, police from Kakinada travelled more than 1,000 kilometres to Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, where he was visiting family. They tracked his phone location to a park on April 14, detained him, and brought him back to Kakinada. He reached the Kakinada I Town police station on the morning of April 16 and was later presented before a magistrate the same night.
The court released him on a personal bond. The controversy around Anudeep began after a joke in which he referred to actor-producer Niharika Konidela's divorce and suggested that she could seek advice from her uncle, Pawan Kalyan.
Supporters of the Jana Sena Party claimed that the remark was inappropriate and disrespectful towards women. Responding to the criticism in an earlier interaction, Anudeep said that his intention was to encourage open conversations about divorce and reduce the stigma around it.
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