KOCHI: Ernakulam Central Police on Tuesday registered a case against Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekar for allegedly causing communal disharmony and violation of public order through his Facebook post.
The Facebook post of Rajeev Chandrashekar was made on Sunday after the bomb blast at Kalamassery at the Jehovah’s Witness convention, a Christian religious group that originated in the US in the 19th century killing three people.
“Brazen appeasement politics - shameless even by Cong/CPM/UPA/INDI alliance standards to invite Terrorist Hamas to spread hate & call for "Jihad" in Kerala, “ stated his Facebook post.
He quoted Hilary Rodham Clinton- "You can't keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbours. You know, eventually those snakes are going to turn on whoever has them in the backyard". The post also carried hashtags HamasTerrorists and KochiTerrorAttacks.
The case against Chandrasekhar is registered under IPC section 153(a) of IPC for promoting communal disharmony and Kerala Police Act 120 for nuisance and violation of public order. Both are bailable offences.
According to sources, the case was registered in the wee hours of Tuesday based on the information of Kochi City Police Cyber Cell.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had earlier warned that the government would sue people who spread communal hatred after various comments and statements flooded social media following Sunday's blast.
On Sunday, he slammed Rajeev Chandrasekhar for his "appeasement politics" remarks.
"Those who're poisonous will keep spitting poison...one of the Union Minister made a statement that I am doing appeasement politics and protesting against Israel...he is a minister and he should give some minimum respect to the investigating agencies, the probe is underway...in such a serious incident, at such an early stage, they are making such statements targeting a few set of people," Kerala CM said.
Reacting to Vijayan's allegations that the BJP was spreading communal poison, Chandrasekhar said that to "accuse him of being communal is to be a liar".
"To accuse me of being communal, or to accuse our party of doing anything other than looking after the best interest of every Indian, is to be a liar. He (Pinarayi Vijayan) is a liar...If not having links with the SDPI, PFI and Hamas is the qualification for being called communal, I am proud to say that nobody in BJP has any linkages with SDPI, PFI and Hamas," Rajeev Chandrasekhar said while speaking at a press briefing in Kochi.
He further alleged that under CM Vijayan's regime, the state has shown increased tolerance towards radical elements.
"Under CM Pinarayi Vijayan, Kerala has shown increasing tolerance towards radical elements and radicalization. Whether it is the Kozhikode attempt to burn a train which would have caused, if he had succeeded over 200-300 deaths and the characterization of that person as being mentally ill till it was revealed that he was an ISIS sympathizer, and that was a deliberate attempt at terrorism. There is a history of appeasement of radical elements by both the Congress and the Left in Kerala," Chandrasekhar added.