Actor Kasturi sent to judicial custody till Nov 29

She was arrested by Chennai police in Hyderabad on Saturday for making derogatory comments about the Telugu speaking community in Tamil Nadu

Actor Kasturi, who was arrested by Chennai police in Hyderabad on Saturday for making derogatory comments about the Telugu speaking community in Tamil Nadu, was on Sunday remanded to judicial custody until November 29.

Actor Kasturi at a police station in Chennai on Sunday. (PTI)

Last week, Justice Anand Venkatesh of the Madras high court dismissed her anticipatory bail application making a distinction between free speech and hate speech. Following the court order, the city police found her hiding inside a film producer’s house in Hyderabad.

She will be jailed in the Puzhal central prison in Chennai. “I expected this. This is political vendetta,” she told reporters while being taken to jail in a police van. The metropolitan magistrate court in Egmore issued the remand order until November 29, said a police official.

Tamil Nadu’s Madurai district police filed an FIR against Kasturi, who identifies as a social activist and political commentator besides being an actor, for her speech on November 3 at a Brahmin’s meet. On November 5, the All India Telugu Federation filed a complaint with the Chennai police. Chennai’s Egmore police registered a case under several sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including section 192 (provocation with intent to cause riot).

The petitioner contended that the allegations made in the complaint is a clear misunderstanding. She said that she has not made any allegations against women and it is being twisted to suit vested interest. The state responded that her speech was intentionally directed against a particular community and if such speech is permitted, it will cause communal disharmony and hatred among two communities.

After hearing both sides, the court said that the petitioner’s speech which is now a permanent record on social media “can act like a ticking bomb, which will wait to burst at the appropriate point of time by creating violence as among the Tamil and Telugu speaking people.” Kasturi apologised after the video became viral and controversial. But the court observed that when a person who has said something that borders hate speech is caught, tendering an apology is a way to escape and courts cannot entertain that. “The speech made by the petitioner clearly hovers around hate speech,” concluded Justice N Anand Venkatesh of the Madurai bench of the Madras high court.

Following the court’s dismissal of her anticipatory bail petition, she was reportedly absconding and a special team from the Greater Chennai Police on Saturday arrested her from Hyderabad.