A 54-year-old singer of an ultra-left outfit and an anti-liquor campaigner, S Kovan, was booked for sedition in Tiruchirappalli on Friday for uploading alleged defamatory content against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.
‘Comrade’ Kovan, Tiruchirappalli district functionary of art and literary outfit Makkal Kalai Ilakkiya Kazhagam, was arrested under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on Friday morning from his residence, police said.
Soon after the arrest, he was brought to Chennai.
He uploaded videos, lyrics which were seditious and defamatory of the government, and provoked people against the State and Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, the police claimed.
Such content had highly seditious, slanderous direct references including images, and lyrics, to the government and Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.
Tamil Nadu Police Official
Another senior official said added that the lyrics, ‘Moodu Tasmacai Moodu’ (‘Shut down TASMAC’, retail chain of liqour stores run by the government) were illegal.
We are in the process of blocking such seditious and defamatory videos…Such content had (some) slanderous references to DMK chief Karunanidhi too (over liqour vending by State)…Process to produce him in the court is on, anytime, he will be produced in the Egmore Magistrate court.
Another Tamil Nadu Senior Police Official
The alleged video content that was uploaded on Tamil websites and went viral through messaging platforms like WhatsApp. The videos projected Jayalalithaa in a bad light, according to the police.
The content had ultra-left propaganda and strong anti–government views, the police claimed.
Against the background of sustained campaign against liquor and its sale by the Tamil Nadu government’s TASMAC chain of retail outlets by various voluntary outfits and political parties, Kovan has been organising events against liquor.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)