india

Updated: Oct 14, 2019 21:57 IST

Justifying the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi has landed filmmaker S Seeman, leader of the Tamil nationalist Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) in trouble with the Tamil Nadu police slapping a case against him late on Sunday night.

The police in Vikravandi in Villupuram district, about 150 km from Chennai, registered an FIR against Seeman following a complaint filed by the Congress party.

“Rajiv Gandhi was killed for dispatching the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to Sri Lanka which carried out atrocities against ethnic Tamils in the island nation. History will be rewritten that Rajiv Gandhi was an enemy of the Tamil race and hence the assassination,” Seeman said on Saturday addressing a bypoll campaign rally at Kanjanur under Vikravandi police limits.

The Assembly bypoll for Vikravandi and Nanguneri assembly constituencies are slated for October 21 and Seeman was canvassing for his party candidate K Kandasamy.

According to him, the assassination that took place in Sriperumbudur on May 21, 1991, was an act of revenge.

IPKF was sent to Sri Lanka under the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987. But, with the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), fighting for a Tamil homeland disowning the treaty, the Indian forces were engaged in a war with the Tamil Tigers. Though the LTTE was decimated and its supremo V Prabhakaran killed in the 2009 war with the Lankan army, the Tigers continue to be valourised by pro-Tamil outfits in the state.

Known to stoke controversies and debunking mainstream political parties as well as fellow film stars for his political ambitions, Seeman has faced sedition cases for praising the LTTE.

The NTK leader rationalising the brutal killing of Rajiv Gandhi has invited the wrath of the Congress in Tamil Nadu with the party demanding that the Election Commission should derecognise NTK.

“Seeman’s actions have affected public tranquillity and we strongly condemn his arrogant, indecent and anti-Tamil speech. He must be booked for sedition,” Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president K S Alagiri said in a statement.

Congress MP Vishnu Prasad and other members lodged a complaint with Villupuram Police Superintendent S Jeyakumar on Sunday evening demanding prompt action against Seeman.

The police have invoked Sections 153 and 504 of IPC, both bailable sections, against Seeman.

The Naam Tamilar Katchi, however, maintained that a conversation is necessary on the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and not passed over like what it claimed was the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi by the BJP and the massacre of Sikhs by the Congress.