An anticipatory bail petition has been filed in the Madras High Court by 20 employees of Tamil magazine Nakkheeran. The petitioners apprehended arrest by Chennai city police in a case booked against them under Section 124 (assaulting President/Governor with intent to compel or restrain the exercise of any lawful power) of Indian Penal Code on the basis of a complaint lodged by a Raj Bhavan official.
The magazine’s Editor R.R. Gopal, who had been cited as the prime accused in the case, was arrested here on Tuesday but Metropolitan Magistrate S. Gopinathan refused to remand him to judicial custody.
Since the First Information Report had been booked not only against him but also against 31 employees and three distributors of the magazine, the present petitioners apprehended that they too might be arrested.
“In the said FIR, unnecessarily and with an ulterior motive, all the persons whose names are found in the declaration of the magazine have been made accused. Deputy Editors, Chief Reporters, Reporters, distributors and administrative staff have been arrayed as accused,” the petitioner said.
Claiming to be innocent and in no way responsible for the offence alleged to have been committed, they sought for advance bail in the event of their arrest.
The complaint was lodged following a series of reports published by the magazine insinuating that the Governor and senior Raj Bhavan officials had links with Nirmala Devi, an assistant professor of a college in Virudhunagar, who was arrested in April on charges of attempted trafficking of college girls.