Kochi: The North Paravur Police on Monday registered cases against Hindu Aikya Vedi president K. P. Sasikala and secretary R.V. Babu three days after their controversial ‘hate speech’. Referring to the Sept 5 gunning down of journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh, Ms Sasikala had asked secular writers to conduct a Mrityunjaya Homam, a ritual dedicated to Lord Shiva to avoid untimely death.
“Cases were under section 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on the grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) of the Indian Penal Code,” an officer said. They collected video and audio samples of alleged hate remarks following complaints of Congress legislator V.D. Satheesan before the state police chief and DYFI block secretary K. S. Saneesh to the chief minister. In her speech at a public function at North Paravur on Friday, the right-winger asked all secular writers to conduct the ‘homam’ saying, “you never know when you'll become victims”.
In his complaint, Mr Satheesan also accused Mr Babu of making “threatening and provocative speech”. Ms Sasikala, however, clarified that she had been referring to the Congress party in Karnataka while making the statement and accused the MLA of taking it out of context with an intention to defame her. “What I told the secular writers here was to perform Mrityunjaya Homam as I have no idea about what the Congress could do to them for votes. So I told them to go to some Shiva temple and perform the ritual or else they could be victimised like Lankesh,” she said.
No decision on case against her in Kozhikode
The High Court is yet to send any intimation to the Kasaba police after registering a hate speech case against Hindu Aikya Vedi president K.P. Sasikala last year. She made it in 2006 against granting bail to the accused in the Marad case, and its video was uploaded on Youtube, ten years later. On October 26, 2016, C. Shukoor, the former Kasaragod district government pleader and public prosecutor, filed a petition with the police to initiate action against her.
However, it was found that the speech was made in Muthalakulam, Kozhikode, under the Kasaba police. On December 10, the case was shifted there, and the inspector investigated the case. Meanwhile, Ms Sasikala approached the High Court to prevent her arrest as she was preparing for an all-Kerala march. However, the HC had not given any instruction to the police to proceed with the arrest, said Kasaba CI Pramod P., who probed the case.
