Plea for booking Rajini on speech against Periyar rejected

A court in Chennai on Tuesday
dismissed a petition filed against actor Rajinikanth over his remarks on rationalist leader E V Ramasamy "Periyar."
On hearing a recording of Rajinikanth's speech during the golden jubilee celebrations of Thuglak magazine on January 14, 2020, the Magistrate said "He (Rajinikanth) has stated what he thought was a fact about a rally held in Salem in 1971 by Thanthai Periyar, and which according to him was also published in the Thuglak weekly magazine of that period."
He contended that "Rajinikanth made false and fraudulent statements insulting Dravidian ideologists and the followers of Thanthai Periyar with an intention to provoke breach of public peace by promoting enmity and hatred among the people of Tamil Nadu in the name of religion."