Journo arrested for defaming' TN gov, freed by court
The court conceded the request from N. Ram of the Hindu to present arguments as a representative of the media.
Chennai: The Chennai police and the Raj Bhavan suffered a huge embarrassment on Tuesday as a court freed Tamil magazine Nakkeeran editor R.R. Gopal hours after he was arrested for allegedly publishing a defamatory article against Tamil Nadu governor Banwarilal Purohit in its April 20-22 edition.
The senior journalist was arrested at the Chennai airport at about 8.15 am when he was just about to board an IndiGo flight to Pune.
The 13th metropolitan magistrate, S. Gopinathan, ordered Mr Gopal’s release when he was produced in the court later in the evening, dismissing the plea of the government counsel seeking the detention of the senior journalist and holding that slapping Section 124 of the Indian Penal Code against him was totally unjustified. The IPC Section prescribes imprisonment of up to seven years to those found guilty of “assaulting” the President or governor of a state “with intent to compel or restrain the exercise of any lawful power...”
Ordering Mr Gopal’s release, the magistrate stated that the publication of the article — a cover story on the Nirmala Devi case which had alleged that governor Purohit was involved in that Madurai Kamaraj University sex scam — did not cause any assault serious enough to restrain the governor from exercising his official duties. There was no physical assault or direct intimidation in this case, observed the magistrate while concluding that section 124 was misplaced in this case.
Emerging victorious from the court, Mr Gopal’s lawyer S. Arogyam told reporters that the defence had argued that Section 124 was totally irrelevant in this case. They pointed out that as per this Section, the accused should have either assaulted the governor or stopped him from performing his duties in some manner, which was not the case now. Besides, the article came out in April and this complaint from the Raj Bhavan was made just now, said Arogyam.
The court conceded the request from N. Ram of the Hindu to present arguments as a representative of the media.
Nakkheeran Gopal also spoke to the media after his release, thanking “everyone who fought” and also expressing gratitude that the court stood for the freedom of press.