Kannada actor Chetan Kumar arrested for tweet criticising Hindutva
The actor had written that the ideology is based on lies. He has been sent to judicial custody for 14 days.
Kannada actor Chetan Kumar was remanded to judicial custody of 14 days on Tuesday for a tweet in which he wrote that “Hindutva is built on lies”, reported The Indian Express.
The actor had posted the tweet on Monday, following which a complaint was registered against him. The Bengaluru Police arrested him on Tuesday on the basis of a first information report filed under sections 295A (malicious intent to outrage religious sentiment) and 505(2) (creating or promoting enmity) of the Indian Penal Code, reported The News Minute.
In his tweet, Kumar claimed that Hindutva was based on lies like the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya being the birthplace of Hindu deity Rama and that 18th-century ruler Tipu Sultan was killed by Vokkaliga community leaders Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda.
Ahead of the Karnataka Assembly elections, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party leaders in the state have asserted that Vokkaliga leaders Uri and Nanje had killed Tipu Sultan, a claim that has been contested by historians. Tipu was killed by the British in the fourth Anglo-Mysore war, according to historians.
In October, Kumar had been booked in a case after he had tweeted that the Bhoota Kola ritual depicted in the movie Kantara was not part of a Hindu custom, reported The Indian Express. Bhoota Kola is a spirit worship ritual practised by Tulu-speaking people in coastal Karnataka. Kumar had said that the ritual was practised by Adivasis and that Bhoota Kola has no links with Brahminism.
In February last year, Kumar was arrested for a tweet on Justice Krishna Dixit of the Karnataka High Court. Dixit was part of the bench hearing the batch of pleas against the hijab ban in campuses. Kumar had tweeted that Dixit had given bail to a rape accused after he noted that the complainant’s explanation was “unbecoming of an Indian woman”, reported The News Minute.