Leena Manimekalai triggered an outcry with a poster of her film 'Kaali'
A day after multiple cases were filed in Madhya Pradesh against filmmaker Leena Manimekalai for a film poster featuring Goddess Kali, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government has said it will write to the centre to send out an order to detain her if she tried to enter or leave the country.
The state government will write to the centre for a "lookout circular" against the filmmaker, officials in Bhopal said.
Three separate police cases or FIRs have been registered so far against the Madurai-born Toronto-based filmmaker at police stations in Bhopal, Ratlam and Jabalpur districts. The filmmaker also faces FIRs in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.
Ms Manimekalai had tweeted a poster of her documentary film 'Kaali' which showed the Goddess smoking and holding an LGBTQ flag, triggering outrage.
She has been accused of "promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion", "deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings" and "intentional insult with intent to provoke a breach of the peace".
In a statement, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said, "We will not tolerate disrespect to any Hindu Gods and Goddesses at any cost."
Cases have also been filed in Madhya Pradesh against Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra for saying she had every right as an individual to imagine Goddess Kali as a "meat-eating and alcohol-accepting goddess" as every person has the right to worship God in their own way.
The police in the BJP-ruled state on Thursday also sent a legal notice to Twitter, asking it to remove access to the "objectionable" content posted by Leena Manimekalai within 36 hours.
The notice, sent by Cyber Intelligence and Cyber Crime Police, Bhopal, came days after Twitter approached the Karnataka High Court against the Indian government's orders to take down content under the IT rules.