Actor and Political hopeful Rajinikanth has on Tuesday granted with the exemption by the inquiry commission, that probes the Thoothukudi massacre, from appearing directly for the investigation and the exemption has come nearly three days after the actor moved his petition to seek the directive from the commission to exempt him from appearing in person.

In the petition filed on Feb 22nd, Rajinikanth has stated that being one of the top actors with stardom, his presence at Thoothukudi would drive in massive gathering from the fans and people that would, in turn, have the possibilities of causing a law and order issue. He added that he would be placing his response to the commission if it gives the actor with the written questions. 

Earlier, on February 4th, the inquiry commission headed by retired Justice Aruna Jagadeesan issued a subpoena for Actor Rajinikanth to appear before the commission on February 25th, 2020, to disclose his assertion and the base of his speech that he aired after visiting Thoothukudi in 2018 and as per the summon, he was scheduled to appear before February 25th. However, the reports say that on Tuesday (Feb 25th), the counsel of Rajinikanth comprised of three lawyers appeared before the commission and disclosed their arguments following which the commission has consented his plea and exempted him.

The reports stated that the commission has provided the questions for Rajinikanth in a sealed cover that have been responded by the actor. On May 22nd, 2018, Thoothukudi had witnessed the unprecedented anarchy and fracas after the Tamil Nadu police had assassinated about 13 people after the rally that was organized to voice against the Sterlite copper plant went violent. The rally was attended by hundreds of people who had demonstrated peaceful protests for about 99 days to urge the government to shut down the copper plant that possessed huge danger for their lives. Rajinikanth had directly visited the injured people in the pearl city.

The statement that the actor made at Chennai had now boomeranged against him. Upon his arrival, Rajinikanth claimed that the violence was incited by the anti-social elements and these anti-social elements had collapsed the police patrols and attacked police personnel and sieged the District collectorate. He stated that the protesters are not public. He further added that the anti-social elements had stormed into the protests like how they infiltrated in Jallikattu protests. His statement had caused more unrest in the state when most of the people were grieving for the victims.