Kanal Kannan, Tamil stunt director and president of the Art and Culture wing in Hindu Munnani, was arrested on August 15 in Puducherry for making controversial remarks about Periyar at a gathering in Maduravoyal, Chennai. He was speaking at the closing ceremony of a campaign organised by the Hindu Munnani for Hindus to reclaim their rights.

The stunt director was booked under sections 153 (provocation with an intent to cause rioting), section 501(1)(b) (induces persons to commit offences against the state or against public order) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). A complaint was filed by members of the Thanthai Periyar Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Chennai to arrest him citing that his speech could cause ‘unrest’.

Kannan was aware that the police were on the lookout for him so he went into hiding in Puducherry. The police got information about his hiding place and he was arrested on Monday, August 15 by the cyber crime police officers. His anticipatory bail was rejected on August 11 by a district court.

Referring to a statue of Periyar in his speech, Kannan said, “There is a statue of someone who denied the existence of god in front of Sri Ranganathar temple which is visited by lakhs of devotees every day. The day that statue is broken is the day Hindus will rise again.” In that speech, he also made a mention of how the world is being overtaken, not through wars but through religious conversations because there are hundreds of countries across the world that follow Islam and Christianity even though the founders of these religioins were not born in any of those countries.