Madras HC suspends prison sentence imposed on MDMK Chief Vaiko for Sedition

The Madras High Court today temporarily suspended the one-year imprisonment sentence imposed on ‎Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) leader, Vaiko on a charge of sedition in relation to a speech made by him in 2009..Justice PD Audikesavalu issued notice in the matter returnable by two weeks after Vaiko moved an appeal challenging his July 5 conviction by trial judge J Shanthi..Vaiko was recently elected unopposed as a member of the Rajya Sabha, along with five others..The controversial speech in question was made by Vaiko during the book launch of “Naan Kutram Sattugiren” (“I am accusing”), a compilation of letters he had written to the Central Government, criticising its approach to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. In his speech, Vaiko is also reported to have appealed to the youth to support the Tamil Eelam. .The trial court had concluded that his speech amounted to hate speech. It was opined that the speech was made at a time when the state population was volatile, given that LTTE leader V Prabhakaran had died only two months earlier. The Court, therefore, found Vaiko guilty of sedition and sentenced him to imprisonment..However, in his appeal, Vaiko contends that the lower court had erred in its judgment as there was no proof that the ingredients of Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (Sedition) were satisfied. He contends that the conviction was based only on presumption. As stated in his affidavit,.“The decision of the trial court below is perverse in that reliance were made on the facts which are not proved by any evidence or even by material produced before the court but based on the personal view of the learned trial judge.“.Inter alia, he also emphasizes that,.“The entire speech was made with the sole intention of bringing a solution to the people who have an umbilical relationship with Tamils living in India whose culture and living style is one and the same.” .He further adds, .“The speech was never made insisting for the separation of any part from India.”.To buttress his case, Vaiko also argues that there are witnesses who will attest that the essence of the entire speech was in the nature of bringing a change in the approach of Indian Government regarding Eelam tamils. .Moreover, he has argued that the police had erred in not producing available video and audio records of the full speech in Court and in not investigating other witnesses present on the day of the speech. He also submits that there were violations of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) during the trial court process.