Coimbatore: The city police have booked DMK Kancheepuram MLA C V M P Ezhilarasan and party spokesperson Singai Soundararajan on charges of hate speech.
Cases were registered against the duo based on a complaint lodged by Kattoor police sub inspector (SI) Ganesh Kumar. In his compliant, the SI said their speeches at a public meeting held recently at Sivanandha Colony were provocative in nature.
Police had initially denied permission to hold the public meeting, citing law and order issues. But DMK managed to obtain nod to organize the public meeting on Wednesday with Ezhilarasan and Singai Soundararajan as key speakers.
At the meeting, the two took a dig at municipal administration minister S P Velumani for granting contracts to his friends and relatives and demanded his resignation. They also flayed chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami for his silence over corruption charges against his cabinet colleagues.
Ganesh Kumar, who was on duty at Sivanandha Colony during the public meeting, lodged a complaint against Ezhilarasan and Singai Soundararajan on Thursday. The Kattoor police subsequently booked the two under Sections 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 505(2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Further probe is on.
“After the meeting, we found the speeches to be provocative in nature and intended to disturb public peace and law and order situation in the city,” a police officer said.
Earlier, the Perur police had booked seven DMK men, including the party organizing secretary R S Bharathi and MLA N Karthik, for defaming the Brahmin community. They had subsequently approached the first calss additional district judge (incharge) M Gunasekaran seeking anticipatory bail. In this case, public prosecutor has sought time to file a counter statement for the bail. The hearing is scheduled on Monday.
