Police challenge bail to MP, orders reserved

Chennai

Bharathi had reportedly remarked that people from the Scheduled Castes became judges because of alms provided by former Chief Minister Karunanidhi during a meet a meet organised by Kalaignar Circle in Chennai on February 14.

State Public Prosecutor A. Natarajan submitted that the sessions judge had granted interim bail even without a bail application being filed. He also noted that there exists no provision in law which gives power to the sessions judge to grant such bail and that too without ordering notice to the complainant.

The counsel appearing for Bharathi argued that the word spoken by his client is not with intention and the word ‘Pitchai’ has a different meaning in English. However, the public prosecutor on holding that the Tamil word ‘pitcahi’ has been in existence for over 100 years. He also argued that the central Government in 2018 had made the usage of the word ‘Harijan’ an offence under the SC ST Act.