The Madras High Court on Wednesday directed Central Crime Branch to arrest actor M. Thamilselvi alias Meera Mithun for having reportedly made highly defamatory and objectionable remarks against Chief Minister M.K. Stalin in a WhatsApp group chat with the makers of her yet-to-be-released Tamil movie titled ‘ Peiya Kaanom’ (the ghost is missing).
Justice G. Jayachandran dismissed an anticipatory bail petition filed by the actor and directed the police to arrest her. He also ordered that the police should prevent the objectionable audio message from being circulated on the social media. The orders were passed after Government Advocate S. Santhosh vehemently objected to her advance bail plea.
The law officer told the court that the actor was in the habit of posting highly vulgar and defamatory video and audio messages on the social media just to gain attention. When the judge wanted to know whether she had been arrested earlier in any of the cases, he said, she was arrested for a short period in only one case related to hate speech.
That case was registered under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989. On March 19, film producer R. Surulivel of Global Entertainment had lodged a complaint against her along with a copy of the audio message that she had shared on a WhatsApp group titled ‘ Peiya Kaanom.’
In the message, she had used vulgar language against the producer, film director as well as the Chief Minister, the Government Advocate said and urged the court to not entertain her plea for anticipatory bail.
