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A Varanasi court ordered an FIR to be filed against actor Kamal Haasan for his ‘Hindu terror’ comments, on Saturday, 4 November, based on a petition by lawyer Kamlesh Tripathi, who also sought charges against Haasan under Sections 550, 505(c), and 298 for offending religious sentiments.
However, Haasan has stood by what he had said earlier.
“If we question, we are called anti-nationals, and we are jailed. When the jails are full, the new fashion is to shoot us,” Haasan told the media on Saturday, 4 November.
Alleging that terrorism has now spread to the Hindu camp, Kamal had on Thursday, 2 November, said, “Earlier, the Hindu right would not personally indulge in violence, but instead, through their debates, they would incite their opponents to violence. But once this tactic failed, they started using muscle power instead of dialogue. They too have started using violence. They can no longer challenge saying 'can you show me a Hindu Terrorist?’”
He had also said, “Terrorism has spread to that extent in their camp. This terrorism is neither a win nor progress for those who call themselves Hindus. Going from 'truth alone triumphs' to 'might alone triumphs' will make us all barbaric.”
His recent response may be a covert reference to the comments from Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha, which on Friday, 3 November, said that Haasan and the likes of him "should be shot dead.”
The complainant accused Haasan of hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus by making “inflamatory and derogatory remark of Hindu terrorism.”
Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy also commented on Haasan’s remark. “He has to see a psychiatrist real soon because we are imagining things. He needs medical attention,” he said.
The court also fixed 22 November for hearing another complaint against Haasan in the same matter.
The application was moved in the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Sudhakar Dubey in Varanasi by lawyer Kamlesh Chandra Tripathi.
(With inputs from PTI)
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