Madurai bench of Madras High Court on Tuesday quashed an FIR filed against YouTuber Maridhas over a tweet that targeted the ruling DMK, indirectly attributing motives of conspiracy and separatism to the helicopter crash that killed Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and 12 others in Coonoor last week.
Though the tweet was later deleted, the Madurai city cyber crime police lodged an FIR following a complaint and arrested Maridhas.
Maridhas was booked under IPC Sections 124 (A) (sedition), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) besides others.
Quashing the FIR on Tuesday, Justice G R Swaminathan said that none of the offences mentioned in the FIR was made out in the case.
After his arrest, the state BJP unit organised protests in Madurai. While a group of BJP men tried to prevent his arrest, the party’s state leadership also condemned the arrest.
Known for his pro-BJP stand on Tamil social media platforms, and on YouTube, Maridhas, however, will not be released immediately as he was remanded in judicial custody till December 27 in connection with another case. On Monday, a city court remanded him in judicial custody in a case related to forging a fake email of a senior News18 editor.
Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/chennai/madras-fir-youtuber-tweet-dmk-rawat-chopper-crash-7672935/
