Actor Prakash Raj questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s silence over the murder of Gauri Lankesh.

A private complaint has been registered against National award-winning actor Prakash Raj in a Lucknow court by a lawyer over his recent remarks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, news agency ANI reported. The court is scheduled to hear the complaint on October 7.

On Monday, Raj stirred up a storm after questioning the “absolute silence” of PM Modi on those “celebrating” the killing of journalist Gauri Lankesh. The actor, a close friend of the Lankesh family, said the prime minister and others were acting as if nothing had happened despite having social media followers celebrating the killing on social media.

“Who killed my dear friend Gauri is not as important to me today as who has been celebrating her death. There may not be proof as to who killed Gauri but we can see who is celebrating it and from this we can form an idea of who could have killed her. The underlying cruelty in all of this is apparent to many people. Many of those celebrating Gauri’s death are persons followed by the Prime Minister on social media. The PM has been absolutely silent about these people,” Raj said while speaking at the 11th annual convention of left-affiliated students’ group Democratic Youth Federation of India.

He went on to say that: “When we see these people going around acting as if nothing has happened, I feel like giving them the five National Awards I have won for acting.” “Look I am a seasoned actor, can I not see through the acting? Give me some respect. Am I stupid? Are people foolish that they cannot see through all this? Are the youth of today blind? The time has come for Modi to understand this,” Raj continued.

Soon after his speech, reports emerged that Raj wants to give back his national award in protest against the killing of veteran journalist Gauri Lankesh. Rubbishing such reports, the actor clarified saying, “Well I can just laugh at the crawling on the newschannel that Prakash Raj has decided to give back his national awards. I am not such a fool to give back my national awards. It has been given to me for my body of work, which I am very proud of.”