Kannada Actor Chetan Kumar Arrested for Anti-Hindutva Tweet; Sent to 14-Day Judicial Custody

Bengaluru: Bengaluru police on Tuesday arrested Kannada actor Chetan Kumar Ahimsa for his tweet saying “Hindutva is built on lies”. The actor was sent to judicial custody for 14 days.

An FIR was filed against him at the Sheshadripuram police station alleging that he hurt religious sentiments through his tweet. In his tweet, Chethan said that Hindutva was an ideology “built on lies” and cited the examples of Savarkar, the Babri mosque as well as Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda. He said Hinduvta can be defeated by truth and that “truth is equality”.

The actor was earlier arrested in February 2022 for a tweet against Karnataka High Court Justice Krishna Dixit, who was then hearing the hijab case.

An FIR was also lodged against him in October 2022 for making “derogatory” remarks about the movie Kantara.