Former DMK minister and sitting MLA Anitha R Radhakrishnan was arrested on Friday after the Madras High Court rejected his anticipatory bail relating to defamatory speech against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay.
Radhakrishnan, who serves as the DMK’s South District Secretary in Thoothukudi, was arrested by Authoor police shortly after the court dismissed the plea. The minister made the alleged defamatory remarks during a public meeting held in Authoor.
“In the state of Tamil Nadu, since 1967, people from the cinema are being voted...Whoever it may be, you have to respect the CM,” the court said, according to a LiveLaw report.
The remarks Radhakrishnan is believed to have made were reportedly about Vijay’s demeanour in the Assembly. He allegedly said that the minister seemed like a person who was trapped.
Sources say that the former minister was inspecting records at the Authoor Town Panchayat when a police team apprehended him.
He was later taken to the the office of the Thoothukudi Superintendent of Police, where Additional Superintendent of Police Arumugam questioned him.
A case was registered against Radhakrishnan under Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita's Section 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and Section 353(2) (statements conducing to public mischief).
Justice GK Ilanthiraiyan of the Madras High Court said, "Being a member of the legislative assembly, what kind of speech have you spoken? Whoever it may be, you have to respect the CM."
The arrest triggered protests by DMK cadres who reportedly blocked a road during police action.
