AGENCIES|THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

A senior functionary of the BJP’s Kerala unit has threatened popular Malayalam writer and novelist Paul Zachariah for calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “murderer”.

After the Bharatiya Janata Party lodged a complaint with the police, B. Gopalakrishnan told the media on Friday that if Zachariah did not apologize, then the BJP might be forced to “act”.

BJP officials in Kerala said that Zachariah made the comments about Modi while referring to the 2002 Gujarat riots, at Palghat at a memorial meeting held for popular writer O.V. Vijayan.

Zacharia, who is a Sahitya Akademi award winner, said it was for the Kerala government to decide if he was to be given any security in the wake of the “threat”.