No police custody for MLA Karunas, his counsel files bail plea

The Egmore Magistrate court on Wednesday denied police custody for actor-turned-politician Karunas, who was arrested on Sunday morning for a provocative speech he made against Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami. The court denied the police's demand for a seven-day custodial interrogation and dismissed the plea.

Karunas' counsel has now filed a bail application which will be heard on Thursday. He is currently lodged in Vellore Central Prison.

The Thiruvadanai MLA 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 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, 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 Tamil Nadu 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 had triggered off a massive row in the state with the Hindu Makkal Munnani filing a complaint with Chennai Commissioner of police AK Viswanathan.

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.