A case was registered against Kerala BJP vice-president and Guruvayur Assembly candidate P Gopalakrishnan on Sunday in connection with his alleged communal remarks about the constituency needing a ‘Hindu MLA’, police said.
An officer at Guruvayur police station said the case was filed under Section 192 (intentional provocation with intent to create riot) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Section 125 (promoting hostility on grounds of religion) under the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
The FIR was registered on the directions of the Election Commission of India (ECI), which found merit in the allegations after going through the video on the candidate’s social media account in which he made the remarks, the officer said. The poll committee had earlier asked the district collector to submit a report on these allegations.
The BJP leader was found to have violated Section 123(3) of the Representation of Persons Act, 1951 and the provisions of the Model Code of Conduct.
In a video posted on his social media accounts, Gopalakrishnan called for a “Hindu People’s Liberation Army” to reclaim the land of Guruvayurappan, the presiding deity of the Guruvayur Sri Krishna temple located in the constituency.
The BJP leader alleged that the rival fronts, LDF and UDF, had for decades fielded Muslim candidates despite the presence of a large Hindu population in the constituency.
“Guruvayur is an international pilgrimage destination. Why was there no local Hindu liberation army? …For the last 50 years, this land of Guruvayur has been in the hands of temple looters and those who oppose the temples. God Himself has deputed me to liberate this land from the clutches of temple looters,” he said in the video.
After the FIR was registered, the video was removed from the account.
