The Egmore Magistrate court on Friday granted bail to actor-turned-politician Karunas, who was arrested on Sunday for a provocative speech he made against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami.
Karunas' counsel had filed a bail application on Thursday. This comes days after the court denied seven-day police custody for the Thiruvadanai MLA.
Karunas was booked by the Chennai city police on September 20 under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Madras City Police Act for the speech he made in Chennai, which went viral on social media. The speech was delivered at Valluvar Kottam.
Three days later, on September 23, Chennai police on Sunday arrested 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, referring to OPS.
Stating that media outlets were owned by Iyers and Nadars, Karunas also attacked a police officer in his speech, who he claimed stopped him from standing next to the chief minister at an event. He had also told members of his community that he would stand with them if they killed betrayers. The comments triggered a massive row in the state, with the Hindu Makkal Munnani filing a complaint with Chennai Police Commissioner AK Viswanathan.
Speaking to Puthiya Thalaimurai, Karunas 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.