Hours after Egmore Magistrate court denied Chennai police the custody of arrested actor-turned-politician Karunas, the police have taken action on two more complaints against ADMK MLA. Karunas, who has been in judicial custody and is lodged in Vellore Central jail, has filed a bail application which will be heard later on Thursday.
"They (police) have also filed two more cases against Karunas in connection to the protests during the IPL match earlier this year in Chepauk. One of the cases holds an attempt to murder charge, involving an attack on a policeman. It is an old case in which nobody was named but now they have introduced Karunas' name in it," Karunas’ counsel advocate Raja stated.
"Government counsel has filed for police custody of three days in the Principal Session court. So, only after hearing this plea, will the bail application be considered. This is a deliberate effort to keep Karunas in jail," he added.
Karunas was arrested on September 23, after he was booked for a provocative speech against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami. Though he tendered an apology later stating that his intention was not to hurt anyone by his speech, he was arrested and remanded to judicial custody.
On Wednesday, the Egmore Magistrate court on Wednesday denied police's demand for a seven-day custodial interrogation.
The Thiruvadanai MLA has been booked by the Chennai city police under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Madras City Police Act, for the speech he made in Chennai, which had gone viral on social media. The speech was delivered at Valluvar Kottam in the city.
Three days later, on September 23, Chennai police on Sunday arrested actor Thiruvadanai MLA Karunas, from his residence in Saligramam at 5 am.
Karunas had named Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam in his speech. The actor-politician claimed that though he belonged to the 'Thevar' community, his loyalties stood with the Sasikala camp but many ‘disloyal’ members of his community had flocked to the EPS camp, a veiled reference to O Panneerselvam.
Karunas also attacked a police officer in his speech, who he claimed stopped him from standing next to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister at an event. He also told members of his community that he would stand with them if they killed betrayers.
Speaking to Tamil news channel Puthiya Thalaimurai later, Karunas had said that his intention was not to hurt any community and that such an incident will not happen again. “As far as I am concerned, I only spoke about the demands of my community. It is not my intention to demean and speak ill of others,” he said.