Kannada actor Chetan Kumar has been remanded in judicial custody after a local court posted the order on his bail application to Friday. He was arrested on Tuesday by the Sheshadripuram police, after they took suo motu cognisance of a tweet he had posted about one of the judges hearing the matter related to the hijab row. Arguing before the judge of the 8th Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court (ACMM) on Wednesday, the prosecutor for the state opposed his bail, saying he would create communal hatred if released on bail.
Chetan was arrested from his home and taken for questioning on Tuesday and his whereabouts were unknown even to his wife Megha, who raised the alarm about his disappearance. Later in the night, the police issued a statement, stating that he had been booked for his tweet and would be produced before the jurisdictional magistrate. He was booked under Section 505 (2) (Intent to incite a class or community to commit offence against another class or community) and Section 504 (Intentionally insulting, thereby giving provocation to any person to break public peace) of the Indian Penal Code.
Speaking to TNM, Chetan’s advocate S Balan said that they had applied for bail on Tuesday night. “The whole case is abnormal. There are crores of tweets per day. Can the police file complaints like this? How do they even know if it is his account or he tweeted it?” he questioned. The advocate was also unhappy about the Seshadripuram police taking up the case suo motu. “How can the police inspector be the complainant? He is not the affected person. What is the locus standi of the inspector?” he questioned.
While Section 504 IPC is a bailable offence and carries a sentence up to two years, Section 505(2) is a non-bailable offence and carries a punishment extendable up to three years.
Balan criticised the police for not preparing an arrest memo, not taking Chetan’s wife’s signature at the time of arrest, and also for keeping him at an undisclosed location, all of which are violations under the guidelines for arrest issued by the Supreme Court in the DK Basu vs State of West Bengal case. Megha had spoken about how she was not informed by the police that he was being arrested and that she had filed a complaint with the Police Commissioner for information about his whereabouts.
The tweet by Chetan which sent the police into action, was posted on February 16 where he questioned Justice Krishna Dixit of the Karnataka High Court, who is one of the three judges, hearing the matter of wearing of hijab in educational institutions. Chetan mentioned another case where the judge had given bail to a rape accused noting that the complainant’s explanation that she was tired and had fallen asleep after the sexual assault is “unbecoming of an Indian woman; that is not the way our women react when they are ravished.”
Chetan has been a Kannada theatre and film artiste since 2006 and has acted in several movies like Aa Dinagalu, Birugaali and Noorondu Nenapu. He has also been known for his activism over the past several years. He has espoused several causes ranging from support for endosulfan victims to dalit rights to access to drinking water facilities.