Thiruvalla First Class Magistrate Court on Tuesday directed the police to file a case against former minister and Kerala MLA, KT Jaleel over his ‘PoK Azad Kashmir’ post on social media. The order was issued on the complaint of an RSS leader from Pathanamthitta, Arun Mohan. Notably, earlier this month CPI(M) leader KT Jaleel faced severe backlash over his ‘PoK is azad Kashmir’ remark in a Facebook post.

“Kashmir has lost its charm. Wherever you look, you only see the army. Kashmir has forgotten to smile. All politicians are under house arrest. The second Modi government has divided Kashmir into three parts,” his Facebook post read. KT Jaleel also questioned if the abrogation of Article 370 served its purpose.

“The part of Kashmir annexed to Pakistan was known as “Azad Kashmir”. This area was not directly influenced by the Pakistani government. Pakistan only controlled currency and military aid. Azad Kashmir had its own army. The unified army became the general army of Azad Kashmir during Ziaul Haq’s presidency. In short, there are no powers to speak of,” his Facebook post further read.

The former minister sparked a row over his remarks. Kerala governor Arif Mohammed Khan called his statement ‘unfortunate and totally unacceptable.’ “It is very unfortunate. Not only is it unacceptable, I wonder if these comments were made after going through some literature or after knowing something or just out of ignorance. I do not know. I feel very sorry for this kind of comment. It is totally unacceptable. I feel hurt by these kinds of comments,” Khan said.

KT Jaleel, however, withdrew his statement later saying he was ‘misinterpreted.’ “It came to my notice that certain remarks I made in a write-up about my trip to Kashmir as part of the expatriate welfare committee of the Legislative Assembly were misleading. I hereby withdraw the statement which was interpreted in contrary to my intention for the good of society and to maintain social harmony,” the Thavanur MLA wrote in another post.