3 DMK leaders booked over remarks against Tamil Nadu CM Vijay, cabinet colleague

The FIRs followed a September 12 DMK protest, with party spokesperson TKS Elangovan accusing the TVK government of targeting opposition leaders.

Tamil Nadu police have registered cases against Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leaders, including party deputy general secretary and former Union minister A Raja and former state minister PK Sekar Babu, over alleged derogatory remarks made by them against Tamil Nadu chief minister C Joseph Vijay and his cabinet colleague CTR Nirmal Kumar, officials familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

A similar case against DMK MLA Vasantham Karthikeyan over his comments against the chief minister was also filed by the Kallakurichi police.

The DMK had organised a state-wide protest on September 12 during which A Raja, P K Sekar Babu and Vasantham Karthikeyan in Kallakurichi allegedly made ‘derogatory’ remarks against Vijay and Kumar.

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The comments made by Raja and Sekar Babu was widely circulated on the social media and triggered spark reactions from various political parties including DMK MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi.

According to the police, cases were filed against A Raja under sections including defamatory remarks against an individual with the intention to disturb peace, inciting violence between groups, use of obscene language and acts causing disruption to public order under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

“We have registered a case. We cannot tell any more than this, “ a senior police officer told HT, requesting anonymity.

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On cases filed against former HR and CE minister P K Sekar Babu, a senior officer of North Chennai police said first information reports (FIRs) have been registered under relevant sections of BNS, including 296 (reciting an obscene song or words in or near a public place), 352 (intentional insult to provoke breach of peace), 196 (1) (promoting enmity), 353 (1) (spreading false information in any medium including social media), 352 (2) (intentional speech that will break public peace) and 351 (2) (whoever threatens another person with injury to their body, reputation or property).

Meanwhile, when reporters asked about the filing of cases against DMK, A Raja said, “Is this a question? if a lawsuit is filed, we just have to face it.”

DMK spokesperson TKS Elangovan said, “As an opposition party we have the right to criticise, attack the ruling party for their mistakes. But this government is only working against the DMK people when our Leader of Opposition (Udhayanidhi Stalin) have asked that so many crimes have happened, so many custodial deaths have happened, so many attacks on women were made they (TVK government) did not have any answer.”

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Elangovan further said, “they will continue to attack the DMK. So, whatever LoP spoke in the assembly, they have no answer, and they have not arrested anybody or filed a case against anybody to ensure that criminals are punished. But they will file case against Raja, and they have also filed cases against LoP and they will do all those things.”

Charging the ruling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam that their intention was to attack the DMK, Elangovan alleged, “during the entire session of the assembly, these ministers did not defend their deeds but they have only attacked the DMK.”