Motivational speaker Mahavishnu, who stoked controversy with his remarks on rebirth and for his brazen argument on 'sin and punya' with a differently-abled government school teacher at a school in Chennai was remanded to judicial custody on Saturday.
Mahavishnu, who went to Australia after the event was arrested by Chennai police on arrival at the International Airport on Saturday. Mahavishnu was arrested following a complaint from a member representing an association working for the welfare of differently-abled persons.
He was later produced before a court which remanded him to judicial custody, a police officer said adding provisions of relevant laws have been invoked against him.
Maha Vishnu was the founder of Paramporul Foundation and he used to give lectures and conduct training programmes on yoga practices and meditation. A few days ago, a visually-impaired teacher, Shankar, strongly objected to remarks made by Mahavishnu based on Karma and rebirth in a school programme meant for motivating students at a government school in Chennai.
Mahavishnu argued with the teacher over the issue and a video clip of his arguments, some of which appeared inappropriate and harsh, went viral on social media.
School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi had strongly condemned the incident and said legal action would be taken against the speaker. Anbil Mahesh also advised teachers and school administration to be mindful of persons being invited for talks at school.
Reacting to the arrest, Anbil Mahesh said 'law will do its duty' and added that the association for the differently-abled has alleged insult to them. The minister had already thrown his weight behind the school teacher who opposed Mahavishnu’s speech.
BJP Tamil Nadu vice president Narayanan Tirupathi questioned the arrest and termed it 'hasty'. He tweeted, “That is 'Dravida Model'. Unnecessarily the govt has created a tiger out of a cat."
