Kannada actor Chetan Kumar arrested over tweet against judge hearing hijab case

Bengaluru: Bangalore police on Tuesday arrested Kannada film actor Chetan Kumar Ahimsa for his objectionable tweet against a High Court judge who is hearing the Hijab case.

The police have taken up a suo motu case against Mr. Chetan and booked him under Section 505 (2) for "statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes" and Section 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of the Indian Penal Code. Both non-bailable offences can lead to three years in prison if convicted. The police said Mr. Chetan would be produced before the jurisdictional magistrate on Wednesday.

As per reports, the tweet in question is a retweet of his own old tweet about Justice Krishna Dixit regarding a rape case.

The old tweet of the actor posted on June 27, 2020 said, "This week KA (Karnataka) High Court Justice Krishna Dixit granted (granted) pre-arrest bail to rape-accused Rakesh B claiming 'it is unbecoming of Indian woman to sleep after rape; that is not way women react when they are ravished.' What's 'unbecoming' is 21st c (century) misogyny of this judiciary Dixit fossil."

As the hijab row hearing is going on, the actor replugged his old tweet and wrote, "This is a tweet I wrote nearly two years ago regarding a Karnataka High Court decision. Justice Krishna Dixit made such disturbing comments in a rape case. Now this same judge is determining whether #hijabs are acceptable or not in govt schools. Does he have the clarity required?"

Chetan's wife Megha conducted a Facebook live on February 22 evening after Chetan's arrest and said no one informed the family about the arrest or the reason. She said she has filed a complaint with the Bengaluru Police Commissioner seeking information regarding Chetan's arrest.

The actor has been regularly tweeting his opinion on the ongoing hijab row. In favour of keeping all religious symbols outside the educational institutes, the actor said schools must ban kumkuma as well as it is a Hindu religious symbol, defined in many Hindu texts and by Shankaracharya.