S.Ve. Shekher the BJP leader who has been booked for his derogatory and defamatory posts against THE WEEK’s correspondent and woman journalists, has approached the Madras High Court seeking anticipatory bail. Shekher has been absconding for the past two days fearing arrests.
In his anticipatory bail application, Shekher has said that he did not share the Facebook post intentionally and it was only a forward message that he shared without reading. Saying that he had already sought an apology for the same, Shekher had sought for anticipatory bail in the same. According to police sources, Shekher was not at his Mylapore residence after the cybercrime wing of the Central Crime Branch (CCB) registered a case under four sections, including Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act. He had apologised through a video statement, from a moving car. He was heard saying, “It was a forward message that I shared and my intention was not to defame or insult anyone.”
Shekher has been booked under Section 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 505(1)(c) (intent to incite any class or community of persons to commit any offence), 509 (Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code. Sources said that Shekher is in Bengaluru for a personal work and he would return to Chennai in three days.
Police took action on the complaint filed by A. Midhar Maideen, State General Secretary, Tamilnadu Journalists Welfare Association, Valasaravakkam. The complaint sought stern action against Shekher for remarks against women journalist. THE WEEK’s journalist has also filed an individual complaint on this against Shekher saying that this has been done to defame and insult woman journalists and THE WEEK journalist in particular. Her complaint has been forwarded to the cyber crime division and action is yet to be taken on it.
It all started with THE WEEK correspondent’s objection to Governor Banwarilal Purohit’s act of patting her cheek, after a press conference. While she later partly accepted the Governor’s apology, Shekher posted a statement on Facebook in support of the Governor. The post, which Shekhar deleted later, claimed that woman journalists can’t survive in the industry by sleeping with powerful men. While he had deleted his post, the screenshot of the same had gone viral, resulting in outrage of journalists against him.