Woman booked as videos of her dancing outside MP temple go viral; apologises later

Chhatarpur: According to an official, police registered a case against a young woman whose videos of dancing to Bollywood songs outside a temple in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhatarpur city went viral on social media. She was charged after a Bajrang Dal leader complained that she danced outside Janrai Toriya Mandir, a Ram-Sita temple, in an ‘obscene manner’ in order to ‘hurt Hindu religious sentiments’, the police official said.

In addition to these controversial dance videos, the woman has 2.5 million followers on Instagram.’Following the complaint lodged by Bajrang Dal leader Surendra Shivhare about the videos, the woman, identified as Aarti Sahu, has been booked under IPC section 298 (deliberate intention of hurting religious feelings of any person),’ Chhatarpur’s Sub Divisional Officer of Police (SDOP) Shashank Jain said.

Following the review of the videos and other facts, a second legal step will be taken. According to Shivhare, Sahu purposefully danced in an obscene manner in front of the temple, sharing the videos on social media with the intent of hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus.

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In a video statement later, Sahu said that she has been going to the temple since she was a child. ‘I regret and seek apology from people if my videos hurt their sentiments. It was not my intention,’ she said, explaining that posting videos on Instagram was the only way for her family to earn money.

Eventually, Sahu removed the videos from Instagram. The woman was seen dancing to two dance numbers from Bollywood – Daye lage kabhi baye lage’ from the movie ‘Cocktail’ and ‘Meri sham awadh se aayi hai’ from the movie ‘Welcome to Karachi’ in front of the temple gate.