DYFI petitions DGP to register criminal case against makers of ‘The Kerala Story’

PTI, May 4, 2023, 3:28 PM IST

The Democratic Youth Federation of India, the youth wing of the ruling CPI(M), on Thursday, lodged a complaint with the Kerala police chief seeking legal action against the producer and director of the upcoming controversial movie ‘The Kerala Story’.

DYFI state secretary V K Sanoj submitted the complaint to DGP Anil Kant charging that the recently released trailer of the Hindi movie amounted to humiliating the southern state and spreading communal hatred. In the complaint, the Left outfit alleged that the trailer, portraying some among the Muslim community as ISIS terrorists, would create communal divisions in the society and cause riots.

There was an ”ulterior motive” behind the false portrayal of the state, claiming that it was Kerala’s story, it said.

The trailer of the movie amounted to a ”criminal offence” under IPC Sections 153 A and 295 A (which criminalises promoting enmity between groups on the basis of religion) and so a case should be registered against the producer and director of the movie these sections and a probe should be initiated against them, it added. ‘The Kerala Story’, starring Adah Sharma and written and directed by Sudipto Sen, is set to be released in cinemas on May 5.

According to the CPI(M) and the Congress in Kerala, the film falsely claims that 32,000 women got converted and radicalised and were deployed in terror missions in India and the world.