Well-known Chennai-based publisher and political analyst Badri Seshadri was arrested by Tamil Nadu police on Saturday for allegedly making “provocative” comments on Chief Justice DY Chandrachud over the Supreme Court’s observation on the Manipur violence, reported PTI.
The arrest took place early this morning by the Perambalur district police after a complaint was filed by lawyer. This was over an interview Seshadri gave to Aadhan Tamil Youtube on July 22.
The complainant claimed to have been disturbed by Seshadri’s views on the judiciary.
In the interview, Seshadri said that all the problems in Manipur started because of the Manipur High Court’s decision on Scheduled Tribe status to the Meitei community and went on to talk about the CJI, reported The News Minute.
Seshadri, who is the Managing Director of New Horizon Media Private Limited, a co-founder of Cric Info, and writes for Swarajya magazine, also criticised the Supreme Court’s stand on the matter and asked if a gun could be placed in CJI’s hands and he will be able to ensure peace.trigerring widespread condemnation.
The context of his statement is a Supreme Court observation following the horrific video of two women being paraded naked in Manipur surfaced online. The top court had directed the Manipur government and Centre to take immediate action to ensure peace in Manipur.
Seshadri has been charged under IPC sections 153 (provocation with intent to cause a riot), 153 A (1) (a) (promoting enmity between groups through words), and 505 (1) (b) (causing fear and alarm in public).
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu BJP state president K Annamalai condemned the arrest, accusing the ruling DMK of resorting to arrests due to its inability to handle opinions expressed by the common man.
In a tweet, “Corrupted DMK government is relying only on arrests without addressing the views of the common people. Is Tamil Nadu Police’s job only to enforce the revenge measures of the DMK government?” Annamalai asked.