New Delhi: Tamil Nadu Police have arrested the leader of a Hindutva group for allegedly issuing death threats to filmmaker Leena Manimekalai over the poster of her documentary Kaali, The News Minute has reported.
Saraswati, the president of the group Shakti Sena Hindu Makkal Iyakkam, has reportedly posted a social media video in which she threatened to kill Manimekalai over the poster of her film, which portrays the deity Kali smoking and holding an LGBTQ flag.
Coimbatore Police charged Saraswati with speaking in an obscene manner and threatening to kill.
Manimekalai is facing FIRs in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh over the poster.
A priest at Hanumangarhi temple in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya also threatened to kill the filmmaker by beheading her.
Manimekalai lives in Toronto in Canada.
“The hate mongers are having a free ride doxxing my crew, my family and my friends’ accounts and flooding their handles with death threats. I am processing mountains of hate and filth. It is so gory that it is hard to breathe. Nobody deserves this violence,” she told The Wire as the furore grew against her film.
Bharatiya Janata Party leaders across India have filed complaints against Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra for saying the deity could be imagined in various ways, in apparent defence of Manimekalai.
An FIR has been registered against Moitra in Bhopal, under Section 295A of the IPC for hurting religious sentiments. TMC, too, has distanced itself from Moitra’s comments.
This article first appeared in thewire.in