Probe complaint against Kamal, Court tells cops

A Tirunelveli court on Tuesday directed police to probe a complaint against popular actor Kamal Haasan for allegedly making insulting statement about Hindu epic Mahabharata.

Hindu Munani Katchi also took serious objection to the remarks of Kamal Haasan that Indians were giving lot of respect to a book (Mahabharata) that highlighted the fact that a woman was pawned away in gambling.

The actor’s words sparked off intense reaction with the Hindu Munani Katchi lodging a complaint against him with the Chennai city police commissioner. The complaint was filed on March 15.

The actor allegedly made the remarks during a March 12 interview to a private Tamil television channel.

Meanwhile, the Judicial Magistrate in Valliyur, Senthil Kumar, directed police to investigate the complaint by Athinathasundaram, president of the city-based Anju Grama traders association.

Athinathasundaram is also secretary of the Narumboonathar temple devotees federation.

Kamal Hassan said in the interview, "The country reads about the book in which a woman (Draupadi) was used as a pawn and was gambled away."

The HMK in its complaint claimed that the remarks of the actor may incite enmity between groups and cause disturbance to public tranquillity. The HMK called Haasan an anti-Hindu and even questioned if he had any guts to speak against Bible or Quran in the same way.