Chennai: It is the turn of the MLA and actor Karunas to stir things up in the State. The legislator, who got elected from the Tiruvadanai Assembly constituency in 2016 with the support of AIADMK, has landed in trouble when he ‘overstepped’ the bounds of speaking up in passing derogatory remarks on the Chief Minister, and the police as well.
While the police booked cases against Karunas for his controversial speech targeting the Chief Minister and the police, AIADMK senior and State Fisheries Minister D. Jayakumar lashed out at him “overstepping” his limits. His remarks have been brought to the attention of the Chief Minister. “Appropriate legal action will be taken against him for making remarks exceeding the limits,” Mr. Jayakumar said on Thursday.
While speaking at an agitation in front of the Valluvar Kottam in Chennai recently organised by his party Mukkulathor Puli Padai, Karunas had made the harsh remarks against the Chief Minister and police and even dared a police official to remove his uniform and come and fight him. He also issued threat against the police officer.
In a 47-minute long speech, the video of which has gone viral on the social media, Karunas claimed that though he belongs to the Mukkulathors community, commonly known as Thevars, his loyalties stand with the Sasikala camp. He went on to say that many ‘disloyal’ members of his community had flocked to the EPS (Edappadi K. Palaniswami) camp, in a reference to the Deputy CM, who also belongs to the Thevar community.
Karunas also flayed the media, claiming that the press was owned by Iyers and Nadars who repeatedly harp on the Nadar name. In his speech, Karunas also attacked a police officer who he claimed had stopped him from standing next to the Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami at an event.
Karunas claimed that the police officer accused one of his party men of extorting money from people at knifepoint. In response to this accusation, Karunas had said that he and his coterie was such that they could spend up to '1 lakh just on alcohol and biryani, implying that they need not resort to such extortion.
Following the controversial speech, V. G. Narayanan of the Hindu Makkal Munnani had filed a complaint with Chennai Commissioner AK Viswanathan. The Chennai city police have booked cases under various sections of the IPC for criminal conspiracy, promoting enmity, promoting disharmony, attempt to murder and issuing death threats, against Karunas.
Later, the Tiruvadanai (Ramanathapuram district) MLA 'expressed regret' for his remarks. Speaking to a Tamil news channel on Thursday, he said he did not intend to hurt any community. "I only pointed out that certain media houses are making mistakes. I didn't speak against any community... I express my deep regret if whatever I spoke in anger over what has happened has hurt anyone. I will make sure it doesn't 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.
During the 2016 Assembly election, he contested on the AIADMK's 'Two Leaves' symbol and won by a margin of over 10,000 votes.
