The Mettupalayam police arrested Former National Secretary of Bharatiya Janata Mazdoor Mahasangh (BJMM) and BJP State working committee member Kalyanaraman on Monday. He was arrested with two others for his comments against the Islamic community and the Prophet. The statements were made at a BJP rally on Sunday. Along with him, Jegannathan, the Coimbatore north district president of BJP, and Satheesh Kumar, the party’s divisional secretary have also been arrested.
A video doing the rounds from the event shows Kalyanaraman making claims that Hindus in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad had bunkers to hide in because they were afraid of Muslims attacking them and insinuating that this fear was banished in 2002 after the violent riots. He further went on to question the manhood of Prophet Mohammad, a statement he has made in the past too, for which he was already arrested in 2016. He explained how he later received bail from the Madras High Court for the same and the judge held that expressing opinions on religious aspects based on an individual’s knowledge of the subject does not amount to blasphemy . This time around however, his arrest was due to the fact that his statements incited violence in Mettupalayam.
According to Times of India, the arrest itself took place after a tense situation prevailed in Mettupalayam at the public meeting. Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) members who heard the statements being made at the venue began to throw stones and wooden logs, enraged over the alleged insult to the Muslim community.
500 policemen were reportedly deployed after SDPI members pelted at the meeting. The BJP meeting itself had been organised to condemn an SDPI rally in support of the farmers' protest on January 26. One of the SDPI members had reportedly been dressed as Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The SDPI men who were at the BJP meeting, alleged that Kalyanaraman had insulted Prophet Muhammad. When violence broke out, the police had to resort to mild force to disperse the gathering and to arrest those responsible.
Speaking to The News Minute, Mettupalayam inspector Sivakumar said that Kalyanaraman’s arrest was based on multiple complaints from several Muslim groups and specifically the local Jamaat alleging that the trio’s speeches and comments were hurting religious sentiments of the Muslim community.
“They have not mentioned one specific incident but have pointed out that these men have a history of making communally charged statements. We have arrested all three of them and slapped multiple sections,” said the inspector.
The accused have been booked under sections 147 (rioting),148 (Rioting, armed with deadly weapon),149 (unlawful assembly), 504 (Whoever intentionally insults, and thereby gives provocation to any person, intending or knowing it to be likely that such provocation will cause him to break the public peace, or to commit any other offence) ,506(2) (criminal intimidation), 153(a) (wanton vilification or attacks upon the religion),153(b) (Imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration) and 269(negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) of the Indian Penal code.