New Delhi: A day after Uttar Pradesh police booked Tamil Nadu minister Udhayanidi Stalin and Karnataka minister Priyank Kharge over the ‘Sanatana Dharma’ remark controversy, the Tamil Nadu police has filed counter FIRs against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) IT cell leader Amit Malviya and Ayodhya priest Paramhans Das on Wednesday (September 6). Das was booked for allegedly issuing death threats to Udhayanidhi while Malviya has been accused of triggering tension and inciting violence against the minister. The two face charges under multiple sections of IPC, including provocation to cause a riot, promoting enmity, and criminal intimidation, the Indian Express reported. An FIR against Udhayanidhi and Kharge was registered in UP’s Rampur on Tuesday (September 6) by one Ram Singh Lodhi, a lawyer, who alleged that his religious sentiments had been hurt by the statements made against sanatana dharma. Udhayanidhi, while attending an event titled ‘Sanatana Ozhippu Maanaadu’ [‘Sanatana Abolition Conclave’] organised by the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers and Artists Association to critique the concept of sanatana dharma, had said, “I congratulate the organisers for calling the conference as ‘eradication of sanatana dharma’ instead of ‘opposing sanatana dharma’…There are certain things which we have to eradicate and we cannot merely oppose. Mosquitoes, dengue, corona and malaria are things which we cannot oppose, we have to eradicate them. Sanatanam is also like this. Eradication and not opposing sanatanam has to be our first task.” The statement sparked a controversy after Malviya interpreted the remarks as a “call for [the] genocide” of sanatanis, who he claimed comprise “80% [of the] population of Bharat”.Commenting on Udhayanidhi’s remarks, Kharge had said, “…Any religion that does not have equal rights and does not treat you as a human being is as good as a disease.”In a statement on Wednesday, Tamil Nadu police said Das had announced a reward of Rs 10 crore for anyone who could behead Udhayanidhi. According to the complainant, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s (DMK’s) Madurai city unit legal adviser J. Devasenan, the Ayodhya religious leader had said that if no one came forward, he would take on the task himself.“This brazen threat was followed by the release of a video where a photo of the minister was symbolically pierced with a sword,” the statement said. It said the video led to “widespread fear and religious tension” among people in Tamil Nadu.“Malviya is said to have distorted the essence of (Udayanidhi’s) speech. Malviya purportedly suggested that the minister incited violence against those practising Sanatan Dharma…. Udhayanidhi clarified his stand, stating he had never incited any form of violence…that he had always stood up against social injustices perpetrated by certain elements within religious frameworks, drawing parallels with societal harm caused by diseases,” the police was quoted by the Indian Express as saying.