Actor-turned-politician and Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) president, Kamal Haasan filed a petition before the Madras high court seeking anticipatory bail. Kamal tried to justify that his speech was not about Hindus as a whole
Chennai: Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) president and actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan filed an anticipatory bail petition before the Madras High Court on Wednesday (May 15). He said his speech was about Nathuram Godse only and not about Hindus as a whole.
Haasan moved the plea after the court had earlier refused to quash an FIR against him, saying such plea cannot be taken up as emergent petitions during the vacation. If an anticipatory bail application was filed it could be taken up for hearing.
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In his plea, he said the offence quoted in the first information report (FIR) under Sections 153(A) and 295(A) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) required procedural safety under CrPC and the same had been overlooked.
Kamal said the complainant had not personally witnessed his election campaign meeting and it had been clearly stated in the FIR.
Earlier, the Madras high court bench refused to entertain the MNM chief's petition seeking to quash the FIR registered against him. Justice B Pugalendhi of the Madurai Bench said such pleas cannot be taken up as emergent petitions during the vacation.
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"It is only based on hearsay and the source of information of the content of the FIR was not disclosed and the apprehensions expressed in the FIR were ill-founded. The FIR instead of establishing communal harmony had only created a life threat to the petitioner personally," the MNM chief submitted in his anticipatory bail application.
Kamal also submitted that a state minister had made a public statement about his speech and made a political issue out of it.
He contended that attempts were being made to malign his good name among the public. The petitioner submitted his statement about Nathuram Godse was not a distorted one.
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"In fact he (Godse) himself in his statement during hearing of the Gandhi assassination case and in his book "Why I Killed Gandhi" had categorically admitted that he was a Hindu and Gandhi was the reason for the partition of India," the petitioner submitted.
The FIR registered against Kamal was over his remark that independent India’s “first extremist was a Hindu". This was made during an election meeting in the Aravakurichi Assembly constituency last Sunday.
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