Chennai: A special court in Chennai on Monday sentenced Tamil Nadu BJP coordination committee leader H Raja to six months' imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 in connection with two defamation cases.
After Raja's counsel informed that he will appeal to the high court against this sentence, the judge suspended the sentence.
The case dates back to six years ago when in March 2018, Raja posted on social media that he would break Periyar's statue. In another social media post on April 2018, he made alleged derogatory comments against DMK MP Kanimozhi. After this, DMK officials and Tandai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam cadres lodged complaints against Raja at various police stations in Tamil Nadu.
Based on complaints, the Erode City Police registered a case against Raja for alleged comments against Kanimozhi while the Karungalpalayam Police filed a case against him in connection with his comments on destruction of Periyar's statue.
Later, the Madras High Court dismissed the case filed by Raja seeking to quash these two cases and directed the special court in Chennai dealing with cases against MP's and MLA's to complete the trial of the two cases within three months. Following which, the trial was held before the Special Court Judge G. Jayavel.
Raja's counsel said, "No evidence has been collected for the comment that Periyar's statue should be broken and the opinion on Kanimozhi is a political matter. Even though Kanimozhi has not filed a complaint, a case has been registered on the complaint filed by a third party, no evidence and documents were filed by the investigating officer and the complainant. Therefore, H. Raja should be relieved from the case,” he argued.
Judge Jayavel, who adjourned the case on November 14 after hearing both the sides, pronounced the judgement today. In the 41-page judgment, the allegations against Raja have been proved beyond reasonable doubt by the police. Therefore, this court finds him guilty and finds that the two particular posts were sent from his social media page, the court stated.
Read more
