CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has issued a stay on the investigation against an assistant director Viduthalai Sigappi (Vigneswaran) for reciting a poem titled Malakuzhi Maranam (Death in the Sewers) over allegations of defaming Hindu gods.

Justice N Anand Venkatesh issued a stay to the investigation and posted the matter for hearing after 4 weeks. Viduthalai Sigappi moved the HC seeking to quash the FIR filed against him. The counsel for the petitioner said that he had recited the poem to express cruelty of the manual scavenging not to defame Hindu gods.

The police booked the petitioner for his poem which he recited in an event organised by Neelam Cultural Centre last April. The depiction aggrieved certain quarters of ardent Hindu groups who demanded the arrest of Viduthalai Sigappi. Later he was booked under five cases. Subsequently, Viduthalai Sigappi filed a petition to quash the cases against him.