Madras HC rejects anticipatory bail plea of a man who criticised CM

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Thursday dismissed an anticipatory bail application filed by a man who was booked on charges of making derogatory comments against the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Facebook.

Justice GK Ilanthiraiyan of the Madras HC dismissed the plea filed by Senthil Kumar, a resident of Arani in the Tiruvannamalai district.

The petitioner prayed for a direction to quash the FIR filed against him by Arani town police based on the complaint of a DMK supporter named V Ravi.

"I am ready to file an affidavit and apologise for my act of criticising the Chief Minister on my social media page," the petitioner submitted.

Police had booked Senthil under Sections 153, 294(b) of IPC, and Section 67 of the IT Act in April.

However, the additional public prosecutor Damodaran appearing for the police submitted that the charges against the petitioner are serious and he had disrespected the CM who is the public servant elected by the people.

Recording the submissions, Justice Ilanthiraiyan denied granting anticipatory bail to the petitioner and dismissed his plea.

Earlier, the petitioner had approached a vacation bench of Madras HC in May.

Even as the petitioner claimed that the complaint was politically motivated, the high court dismissed his plea and confirmed the verdict of the principal sessions judge, Tiruvannamalai.