Madras High Court grants relief to YouTuber booked for objectionable Tweets by his supporters

The Madras High Court recently granted anticipatory bail to YouTuber and Naam Tamilar Katchi member Sattai Durai Murugan who was booked by the Trichy police last month after his followers and party supporters put out hateful comments on X against a local police officer..Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy of the Madurai bench granted bail to Murugan after noting that he himself had not made any comments but it was only his supporters who had made the objectionable and obscene posts.Justice Chakravarthy however, added that “virtual warriors” should perhaps reflect and ask themselves if it was necessary to respond, before posting anything on social media. The judge also quoted from the classic Tamil poem Aranericharam to explain that hateful comments on social media can cause grave hurt to victims..“Thus, it can be seen that these words are like alighting fire in one’s heart and mind and can cause grave harm in the minds of the victim. Sadly, these persons do not seem to know that it is a public place / platform and there they stand exposing their illiteracy, depraved and corrupt minds and verbal violence. The said poem also gives a way to deal with such harm. It says one has to douse this fire with his wisdom. In the context of these virtual warriors, I believe that before responding, it is better to ask oneself, Is the response necessary,” the Court said in its order of September 5. .Durai Murgan was booked by the police following a complaint made by a local officer. It all started after the officer, the defacto complainant in the case, made a post on X criticising the minister for his comments made in an interview with the press.As soon as he made that post, he began to receive hateful and threatening responses from several people, most of whom were supporters of Murugan. While some of the comments threatened the officer and used “unparliamentary language,” some others went a step ahead and began to circulate the images of the officer’s wife, her morphed pictures etc.The police then booked several people including Murugan under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Information Technology Act (IT Act)..While going through the details of the first information report (FIR), Justice Chakravarthy also took note of the posts against the police officer’s wife, which were sexually coloured and reduced women to sexual objects. “It can be seen that these persons wanted to comment on the Police Officer and send him a political message. Instead of doing the same, they have taken care to find out who was the wife of the officer and made comments against her, mostly sexually coloured and calling her names, they have taken pains to find her picture and post the same and even some morphed pictures are also posted. This misogynistic depravity and looking at women as sexual objects is the core goondaism prevailing in our society leading to all crimes against women. Therefore, they have to be dealt with sternly,” the judge said..However, the Court allowed Durai Murugan’s petition and granted him protection from arrest..Advocates K Swami Durai and M Dinesh Hari Sudarsan appeared for Durai Murugan.Additional Advocate General Veerakathiravan and Additional Public Prosecutor RM Anbunithi appeared for Trichy Police..Note: An earlier version of this story wrongly identified Sattai Durai Murugan as the DMK Minister Durai Murugan. The error has been rectified and is deeply regretted..[Read Order]