New Delhi: Kamal Haasan, actor and founder of Makkal Needhi Maiam, was granted anticipatory bail by the Madras High Court (Madurai Bench) on Monday.
Haasan feared arrest for his remarks that Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse was free India’s first Hindu extremist. The actor was booked by the Aravakurichi police on the charges of promoting enmity on the ground of religion.
Justice B. Pugalendhi granted anticipatory bail with conditions stating that Haasan was a leader of a registered political party and the election process was underway. The court took into account the entire speech delivered by Haasan at an election campaign in Aravakurichi, Karur District.
In his petition, Haasan pled that his speech was not made against Hindus as a whole but specifically for Godse. He has clarified that it was not his intention to hurt sentiments of any religious group.
Further establishing his claim, the MNM founder said that Godse himself, in his book Why I killed Gandhi, had categorically stated that Mahatma Gandhi had acted against the interest of Hindus, and had blamed him for partition.
The Aravakurichi police had booked Haasan under Sections 153 A (promoting enmity between groups on the ground of religion) and 295 A (deliberate and malicious act intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion and religious beliefs) of the Indian Penal Code.
On May 13, Kamal Haasan had sparked a controversy, saying that India’s first “terrorist was a Hindu,” referring to Nathuram Godse who killed Mahatma Gandhi on January 30, 1948.
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Ms Kalinga