Kannada actor and human rights activist Chetan Kumar Ahimsa has been arrested over a tweet criticizing Karnataka High Court judge Justice Krishna Dixit who has been hearing the hijab controversy case.
Bengaluru city police took cognizance of Chetan’s tweet, shared on February 16, and has booked him under Section 505(2) (intent to incite a class or community to commit offence) and Section 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of the Indian Penal Code. He’ll be produced before Judicial Magistrate.
Slamming Justice Dixit by sharing an old tweet of 2020, Chetan wrote, “This is a tweet I wrote nearly two years ago regarding a Karnataka High Court decision Justice Krishna Dixit made such disturbing comments in a rape case Now this same judge is determining whether #hijabs are acceptable or not in govt schools Does he have the clarity required?”
This is a tweet I wrote nearly two years ago regarding a Karnataka High Court decision
Justice Krishna Dixit made such disturbing comments in a rape case
Now this same judge is determining whether #hijabs are acceptable or not in govt schools
Does he have the clarity required? pic.twitter.com/Vg8VRXmJTW
— Chetan Kumar Ahimsa / ಚೇತನ್ ಅಹಿಂಸಾ (@ChetanAhimsa) February 16, 2022
In a 2020 tweet, he had written, “This week KA High Court Justice Krishna Dixit granted pre-arrest bail to rape-accused Rakesh B claiming ‘It is unbecoming of Indian women to sleep after rape; that is not way women react after they are ravished.’ What’s ‘unbecoming’ is 21st c misogyny of this judiciary Dixit fossil.”
He had tweeted that in connection to Justice Dixit’s observations in a rape case which received a huge backlash. Justice Dixit had granted anticipatory bail to a rape accused after observing that the victim had fallen asleep after the assault.
“The explanation offered by the complainant that after the perpetration of the act she was tired and fell asleep, is unbecoming of an Indian woman; this is not the way our women react when they are ravished,” the judge had noted.
His wife, Megha during a Facebook Live said that Chetan had gone missing. “No one informed us, his phone is switched off, so is our gunman’s,” she said.
