Chetan Kumar, the Kannada actor, has been arrested by the Bengaluru Police on Tuesday owing to his recent tweet on the ongoing Hijab case in the state, his wife Megha alleged in a social media post.
Megha went live from the actor’s Facebook page on Tuesday evening from Sheshadripuram Police Station and said that Chetan is reportedly missing. “No one informed us, his phone is switched off, so is our gunman’s. He is a missing person right now. The police officials said that he (Chetan) is not in their custody at the moment but they have escorted him elsewhere for inquiry purposes.”
She further said that the police has neither given her any notice about the actor’s detention nor have they provided any information on his whereabouts. Megha has reportedly filed a complaint with the Bengaluru Police Commissioner’s office seeking information on his whereabouts.
The actor has been 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.
Further, DCP Central also stated that Chetan will be produced before the jurisdictional Magistrate soon.
The police have taken suo motu cognisance of the actor’s tweet dated February 16 where he questioned Justice Krishna Dixit of the Karnataka High Court.
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On February 16, Chetan shared one of his tweets from two years ago, regarding the same judge and wrote, “This is a tweet I wrote nearly two years ago regarding a Karnataka High Court decision Justice Krishna Dixit made such disturbing comments in a rape case Now this same judge is determining whether #hijabs are acceptable or not in govt schools Does he have the clarity required?”
Previously, in 2021, there have been multiple complaints filed against the actor over his social media posts on casteism and Brahminism. When Silverscreen India had spoken to him regarding the complaints, Chetan had said that he was pleased that these issues are garnering attention through these controversies.
“I’m glad that these issues of caste and social inequalities are actually coming into the mainstream, which has been my intention all along. And, of course, if you bring these kinds of issues to the mainstream, there is a certain amount of denial and lack of acceptance,” he said.