Two days after externing film critic Mahesh Kathi from the city, the Hyderabad police on Wednesday issued the same orders against controversial Hindu seer Swamy Paripoornananda.
With this, the seer can't enter Hyderabad for the next six months, without prior permission from the police.
The seer, who is the founder of Rashtriya Hindu Sena, was kept under house arrest in Jubilee Hills under section 151 of the CrPC (arrest to prevent the commission of cognizable offences) by the West Zone police since Monday, while Mahesh was deported to his native home in Andhra's Chittoor district.
The police had earlier faced criticism for taking action against Mahesh Kathi, who did not have any criminal background. Many also questioned the police on why no action was taken against the seer, who had made several controversial statements in the past.
Following this, the police collected video evidence against the seer.
In one statement, he apparently alleged that the government was collecting surcharges against Hindus for visiting Kasi or Rameswaram, while on the other hand Christians and Muslims were given subsidy to visit Mecca and Jerusalem.
In another meeting in December last year in Kamareddy district, the seer had allegedly asked the gathering if they want 'Chatrapathi Shivaji rule' or 'Nizam rule', police said.
Citing several other instances where the seer allegedly attempted to create a communal divide, the Hyderabad police issued a show cause notice to Paripoornananda on July 10. He was given a deadline of 24 hours to respond to why they shouldn’t extern him under the Telangana Prevention of Anti-Social and Hazardous Activities Act 1980.
However, as Paripoornananda refused to acknowledge the show cause notice, the Hyderabad Commissioner, Anjani Kumar directed the Jubilee Hills police to extern him from the city.
While the seer was given a show cause notice to explain his stand, Mahesh Kathi was not given any such opportunity.
Meanwhile, the film critic has condemned the police’s latest move saying that it was not the ‘solution for the problem’, and said that externment was against the ‘spirit of democracy’.
Mahesh Kathi is the first person to be externed from Hyderabad without having any criminal background. However, many cases were booked against him for his comments on the Ramayana.