The petition was filed on May 12 by advocate Harishankar Pandey in the MP/MLA court of additional chief judicial magistrate (ACJM) Niraj Kumar Tripathi. Pandey alleged that during his April 21 speech at Brown University, Rahul Gandhi referred to Lord Ram as a fictional and mythological figure, which, he claimed, hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus who follow Sanatan Dharma.