Days after Kamal Haasan courted controversy by stating that independent India’s first extremist was a terrorist, the Madras high court has granted anticipatory bail to Makkal Needhi Maiam president. The actor had applied for anticipatory bail on May 16.
Chennai: The Madurai bench of the Madras high court has granted anticipatory bail to actor-turned-politician and Makkal Needhi Maiam president Kamal Haasan.
The court has asked Kamal Haasan to appear before the Aravakurichi magistrate within 15 days. The anticipatory bail will be given against a bond surety amount of Rs 10,000. The actor had applied for anticipatory bail on May 16.
Also read: ‘Hindu extremist' row: Kamal Haasan hails Mahatma Gandhi as ‘superstar’
Haasan had moved court seeking anticipatory bail after an FIR was filed against him for his comments about Nathuram Godse during an election campaign in Aravakurichi, Tamil Nadu.
The Karur Police booked him on charges of ‘promoting enmity’ for stating that “independent India’s first extremist was Nathuram Godse - a Hindu”.
Kamal Haasan’s primary prayer in court was to quash the FIR against him. But Justice B Pugalendi had denied stating that the court could not get involved at the current stage of events and went on to advise Haasan to apply for anticipatory bail.
Also read: Kamal Haasan does it again; says ‘Hindu’ is of foreign origin, not Indian
Hindu Munnani’s Karur district secretary, KV Ramakrishnan, had filed a complaint against Kamal Haasan. The FIR was registered under sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion) and 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings) of the Indian Penal Code.
Following Kamal Haasan’s comments, people attacked him during his rally with stones and footwear. The BJP had questioned if terrorism had any religion and even Prime Minister Modi had responded to such statements.
BJP state president of Tamil Nadu, Tamilisai Soundararajan, had questioned how the president of Makkal Needhi Maiam could make such statements. She said Godse was found guilty and hanged. “How can you link it to religion?” she asked.
Also read: Kamal Haasan’s ‘Hindu extremist’ remark: Actor says he is not afraid of arrest
The actor-politician further went on to say that he had only uttered what was a historical truth. Haasan once again defended his statement and said, “I cannot change my hero and I can't accept the villain as hero.”
Former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah was in Delhi on Sunday (May 19) to meet the Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Siddaramaiah agreed with actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan and called Nathuram Godse a terrorist, while claiming that BJP's Sadhvi Pragya Thakur Singh too belonged to a ‘terrorist family’.
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