Madurai, May 15 (UNI) The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Wednesday turned down a petition filed by Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) founder Kamal Haasan seeking to quash an First Information Report (FIR) registered against him over his ‘Hindu extremist’ remarks and requested for an urgent hearing of the appeal.
When the plea came up for hearing, Justice B Pugalendhi said such petitions cannot be heard by a vacation bench.
However, the judge said if an anticipatory bail application was filed then it could be taken up for hearing.
Later, an anticipatory bail petition was filed before the court on behalf of Mr Haasan.
The petition is likely to come up for hearing on Thursday.
The Aravakkurichi police in Karur district on Tuesday night registered a case against the actor-turned-politician under Sections 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and 295 A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) of the Indian Penal Code, based on a complaint filed by the Hindu Munnani district secretary KV Ramakrishnan for making ‘Hindu extremism’ remarks during an election campaign.
Mr Haasan stoked a controversy while canvassing votes for his party’s Aravakurichi assembly constituency candidate at Pallapatti in Karur on Sunday night by stating that the “Independent India’s first extremist was a Hindu. His name was Nathuram Godse.”
UNI GSM SHK2120