The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday quashed the FIR registered against YouTuber Maridhas by the Madurai Police, following a tweet of his that had questioned whether Tamil Nadu was turning into another Kashmir
The Madurai police had registered the FIR against Maridhas under Sections 124 (A) (sedition), 153 (A) (promoting enmity between different groups), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 505 (1) (b) (with intent to cause fear or alarm to the public) and 505 (2) (statements creating or promoting enmity) of the IPC.
Justice G.R Swaminathan observed that none of the provisions filed had been attracted, and quashed the FIR registered against the YouTuber. The State government had opposed the plea filed by Maridhas.
In his petition, M. Maridhas of Madurai said that on December 9, he posted a message regarding the death of Chief of the Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat. He wanted the government to take action against “the persons who smile on the death of the Chief of the Defence Staff,” he said.
He said instead of taking action against such people, the government had taken action against him. He had raised his voice against separatism and terrorism, as a social activist. There were no materials to invoke the provisions against him, and it was an abuse of the process of the law, he said.
