The Madras High Court on Thursday ordered notice, returnable by June 15, on a petition filed by the founder of Coimbatore-based news portal Simplicity to quash a criminal case registered against him for reporting about government doctors’ protest and pilferage in ration shops.
Justice N. Sathish Kumar granted four weeks’ time at the request of State Public Prosecutor A. Natarajan who said, the petitioner, D. Andrew Samraja Pandian, 39, had been granted bail by a court in Coimbatore and hence there was no urgency in hearing the plea to quash.
In his petition, filed through advocate N. Ramesh, the litigant stated that he had carried a news item titled ‘No timely and adequate food, alleged UG and PG student doctors at CMCH hostel,’ on his news portal on April 14. The news was based on protest by government medical college students.
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Subsequently, he had carried another news item titled ‘Looting at ration shops during lockdown. Govt’s grant of ₹1,000 swindled, lament public’ on April 18 and it was based on complaints from local residents regarding pilferage in fair price shops during the lockdown.
Taking exception to them, the Assistant Commissioner of Coimbatore Corporation lodged a police complaint against him on April 22 accusing the petitioner of inciting the people against the establishment. The police registered a case and arrested the petitioner.
He was remanded to judicial custody on April 23 and got released on bail on April 28. Stating that he had only performed his professional duty as a journalist, the petitioner said that he had no malafide intention in publishing the news and that it could not be termed as false news.
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“In the present case, the petitioner is the victim of a political vendetta since the petitioner had rubbed up brother of local minister and functionaries the wrong way,” the litigant said and urged the court to quash the First Information Report.