5 members of fringe outfit held for burning Rajinikanth's effigy

Five members of a fringe Tamil outfit were arrested on Monday for burning an effigy of superstar Rajinikanth for his remarks on social reformer E V Ramasamy 'Periyar'.

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The activists of Athi Tamizhar Peravai raised slogans and burnt an effigy of the actor, accusing him of spreading 'false' information about a 1971 rally to defame 'Periyar'. Some parties, including Dravidar Viduthulai Kazhagam, had already protested againstRajinikanth's statement.

The DVK had demanded an unconditional apology and filed police complaints on January 17, seeking action against him. The party had alleged that Rajinikanth uttered a "blatant lie that images of Lord Ram and Sita were taken nude" in a rally held by Periyar as part of a superstition eradication conference at Salem.

This 'false' information was propagated with "an ulterior motive to besmirch Periyar's reputation," the party had said. The actor, in his address at the 50th anniversary-cum-readers' connect event of Tamil magazine 'Thuglak' on January 14 in Chennai, had said "In 1971, at Salem, Periyar took out a rally in which undressed images of Lord Sri Ramachandramoorthy and Sita -with a garland of sandal-featured and no news outlet published it."

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