Case against Kamal Haasan for Hindu terror remark

Among those who joined the chorus to support Kamal Haasan are leading Tamil actors Arvind Swami and Prakash Raj. (File photo)

A VARANASI court on Saturday registered a case against Kamal Haasan, a day after a local lawyer accused the actor of hurting religious sentiments of Hindus with his “Hindu terror” remark in a Tamil weekly. The additional chief judicial magistrate (ACJM) has fixed November 22 as the next date for hearing.

This came on a day a Meerut-based leader of Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha demanded that Haasan either be shot dead or hanged for his remark.

Hindu Mahasabha national vice-president Pandit Ashok Sharma on Saturday described Haasan as “mentally challenged”. Sharma said, “He should be shot dead or hanged for his statement. He has made such a statement without going through history… The Hindu community should boycott his films.”

In the Varanasi case, complainant Kamlesh Tripathi said, “ACJM Sudhakar Dubey ordered registration of a complaint in court against Kamal Haasan.”

A native of Jaunpur district, Tripathi practices in Varanasi district court.

Denying that he is affiliated to any political party, Tripathi said, “I have stated that people belonging to other communities would start suspecting Hindus and develop hatred for them after reading his article.”

In his column published in a Tamil weekly earlier this week, Haasan had stated: “In the past, Hindu right-wing groups would not indulge in violence but hold a dialogue with opposite parties on their arguments. But this old tactic was defeated and they started using muscle power. They started indulging in violence.

“The right-wing cannot challenge anyone asking the question — show me one Hindu terrorist. Terror has spread into their camp as well.”

Tripathi said he had requested the court to hold Haasan accused under IPC Sections 500, 511, 298, 295 A and 505 (1) C.

Among those who joined the chorus to support Haasan are leading Tamil actors Arvind Swami and Prakash Raj. “Terrorist definition. A person who uses unlawful violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims,” Swami tweeted on November 2. Reacting to Sharma’s statement, he wrote on Saturday, “Do you think this is what he was referring to.”

In a Twitter post titled “to whomsoever it may concern,” Prakash Raj wrote, “If abusing and manhandling young couples on the streets of my country in the name of morality is not terrorizing. If taking law into hands and lynching people on slightest doubt of cow slaughter is not terrorizing. If trolling with abuse, threat.. to silence even a slightest voice of dissent is not terrorizing. then what is terrorizing.”