Writer and activist Kancha Ilaiah filed a police complaint in Hyderabad on Monday, saying that he feared for his life after getting threat calls over the weekend, The Indian Express reported.

The police inspector at the Osmania University police station confirmed to news agency ANI that the writer and professor had lodged a complaint.

Ilaiah’s book, Samajika Smugglurlu Komatollu, is in the centre of a controversy, as it claims the Arya Vysyas community used to eat meat and were agriculturalists. Arya Vysya associations have alleged the title of the book and some of its content are demeaning, and burnt his effigies in Hyderabad and other areas in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana on Sunday, the Deccan Chronicle reported.

Ilaiah told The Indian Express he got calls from unknown people who abused and threatened him. “International Arya-Vysya Sangham, headed by K Ramakrishna, condemned my writings on a TV channel,” the newspaper quoted Ilaiah as saying. “Someone threatened to cut my tongue... If anything happens to me, they will be responsible.”