Two individuals associated with a Tamil YouTube channel named ‘Karuppar Koottam’ have been arrested by the police in Tamil Nadu after an alleged insult to the worship of Hindu God Murugan. Anchor Surendran and another prominent member M Senthil Wasan were arrested on Wednesday after a case was filed in the matter.
The arrests were made on the basis of complaints filed by youth wing leader Vinoz P Selvam on behalf of Vice President of BJP in Tamil Nadu M.N.Raja and leader R.C.Paul Kanakraj. A Tamil speaker Karan Praveen told OpIndia that the controversy began when the worship of Lord Murugun, or Lord Kartikeya as he is popularly known in North India, the son of Lord Shiva, was mocked.
We were told that Karuppar Koottam in a video hurt the sentiments of the Tamil Hindu community. The said video made fun of the Skanda Shashti Kavacham, which is chanted by Tamil Hindus, to gain the favour of the Gods. The Skanda Shashti Kavacham holds as much significance for Tamil Hindus as the Hanuman Chalisa does in households of North India.
The Karuppar Koottam used the mantra in a very obscene and vulgar manner in one of their videos. Subsequently, the cyber crime branch booked Surendran under sections 153, 153(a) (1) (A), 295 (p), 505 (1) (b) and 505 (2) of the IPC. Following the registration of the FIR, another Surendra Natarajan, surrendered himself before the authorities.
Prior to his surrender, Surendran garlanded a statue of Periyar, in an obvious bid to garner political support. In his anticipatory bail application filed before the Madras High Court on Wednesday (July 15, 2020), Surendran defended himself saying that he has the right to express himself in a democracy and his incendiary comments should not be considered a crime.