Director Pa Ranjith has got temporary relief in connection to the 2019 Raja Raja Cholan case against him. On August 03, 2021, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court passed an interim injunction on the filing of the final report against the director.
In June 2019, the director had been speaking at a commemorative event for the late Umar Farooq, organized by the Neela Puligal Iyakkam that he’d founded. The event took place in Thiruppanandal near Kumbakonam. At the event, Ranjith had criticized a tendency of various caste groups to take uncritical pride in Raja Raja Cholan, and added that for Dalits the rule of the erstwhile king had been a dark age. Land had been forcibly taken away from them and many forms of caste oppression had begun during Raja Raja Cholan’s reign, he said.
On June 11, 2019, based on a complaint by former Thanjavur District Secretary Ka Bala of the Hindu Makkal Katchi, Thiruppandandal police registered an FIR against Ranjith under IPC 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot) and 153 (A) (1) (a) (promoting enmity between different groups). Ranjith had filed an anticapotry bail plea the following day.
The same month the Madurai Bench granted him conditional anticipatory, but had warned against making controversial comments in the future.
Ranjith’s petition to the Madurai Bench to dismiss the case against him came up for hearing today. In summary, he had said in the petition that on June 05, 2019 he had given a speech at a Neela Puligal Iyakkam event, during when he’d spoken about some truths regarding Raja Raja Cholan. In the petition, he also says that he’d spoken about what Umar Farooq had written in his book about landless people, particularly landless people in the Delta region. He states that many history books and other people have spoken about the same issue, but only his words were being misrepresented. Since he had said nothing new in that event and because his words do not target any particular community, he’d requested that the case be dismissed.
The Madurai Bench has for the time being granted an interim injunction and adjourned the hearing until August 31. The court has asked the government to respond in the meantime. Justice Illangovan who presided over the case said before passing the order that “a person has the right to express their opinion.”