Days after actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan’s remarks on Nathuram Godse created controversy in the state, Tamil Nadu’s Karur district police have booked him for ‘promoting enmity’. The Makkal Needhi Maiam chief was on the campaign trail in the Aravakurichi constituency when he said that independent India’s first extremist was Nathuram Godse who was a Hindu. Following this, Kamal Haasan received condemnation from the BJP, the AIADMK, and the AMMK. The actor had called off campaign events on the following days.
An FIR was registered following a complaint by Hindu Munnani’s Karur district secretary KV Ramakrishnan. The actor has been booked under Indian Penal Code Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion) and 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings).
Aravakurichi goes to polls, along with three other pending bye-assembly constituencies, on May 19. The actor, who was on the campaign trail in the constituency, had also said, “I am not saying this because this is a Muslim-dominated area, but I am saying this before a statue of Gandhi. I am Gandhi’s spiritual great-grandson. I have come to ask answers for that murder. Think of it like that.”
