The Ayodhya seer who had announced a Rs 10 crore bounty for Tamil Nadu minister Udhayanidhi Stalin’s head – over his remarks on Sanatan Dharma – has been booked in Tamil Nadu amid a political war of words. But the FIR has also named the Quint’s Uttar Pradesh correspondent Piyush Rai, who had first reported on the bounty the seer had announced, with a video.

Several journalists have condemned the move, tagging the DMK government in Tamil Nadu on social media.

The FIR was lodged by the Madurai cyber crime police after DMK Madurai legal wing convener J Devasenan filed a complaint with the Madurai Commissioner. Devasenan’s complaint named Rai as the person who “spread the video” on social media, which caused fear and incited riots.

The case was lodged under IPC sections 153 (wantonly giving provocation, with intent to cause riot), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc, and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 504 (punishment for criminal intimidation), 505(1)(b) (statements conducing to public mischief) and 506(2) (punishment for criminal intimidation).

Police told The News Minute that Piyush Rai’s name has been added to the FIR because it was in the complaint and it will seek legal opinion before proceeding further.

At an event organised by the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers Forum last week, Stalin had said that Sanatan Dharma must be eradicated. “Mosquitoes, dengue, corona and malaria are things which we cannot oppose, we have to eradicate them. Sanatanam is also like this. Eradication and not opposing Sanatanam has to be our first task,” he had said. 

Udhayanidhi was booked for his remarks, which triggered a political war of words, and invited sharp criticism from the BJP while leaving the opposition INDIA bloc seemingly divided over the issue.

BJP’s IT cell in-charge Amit Malviya has also been booked by the Trichy police for distorting Udhayanidhi’s speech. Malviya alleged that Udhayanidhi was calling for “genocide of 80 percent population of Bharat, who follow Sanatan Dharma”.

Amid the controversy, Ayodhya’s Tapasvi Chhawani temple’s sant Ramchandra Das Paramhans Acharya was caught on camera announcing a Rs 10 crore bounty. “If no one dares to kill Stalin, I will myself find him and kill him,” he purportedly said.