Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], April 15 (ANI): Kannada actor and activist Chetan Kumar, popularly known as Chetan Ahimsa on Saturday said he received a notice from the Home ministry that his visa had been cancelled and he had 15 days to return the Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) card. “On April 14, Ambedkar Jayanti, I got a notice from the Home ministry that my visa has been cancelled and that I have 15 days time to return the OCI card….10 months ago I got a show-cause notice from the MHA saying that if you don’t give reasons as to why your OCI should not be cancelled, we will cancel it. So I gave 10-15 pages of reason, all my photos, my work in the film industry, but they don’t seem to want to give it a chance or they want to find reasons to silence the voices of dissent and resistance,” Chetan Kumar told ANI. The Centre hasn’t yet issued a statement over the actor’s claim.
He further alleged that the power structure wants to build an atmosphere of fear against anybody who speaks in favour of equality. “They clearly want to build a fearful atmosphere against anybody who speaks in favour of equality and rationality and is somehow silenced and put in jail,” he alleged. Chetan Kumar is currently on bail after his recent arrest by Bengaluru Police over an ‘offensive’ tweet.
Earlier, on March 21, Chetan Ahimsa was sent to judicial custody for 14 days over his tweet. The Sheshadripuram police arrested him in Bengaluru following a complaint against him after his tweet, purportedly stating that Hindutva is ‘built on lies’, went viral online.
The complaint filed by Shivakumar, a member of a right-wing outfit, against him stated that his tweet hurt the sentiments of Hindus. The actor, who is also a Dalit and a tribal activist, was produced before a district court which sent him to judicial custody for 14 days. In his tweets, the actor allegedly said ‘Hindutva can only be defeated by truth. (ANI)
