The Madras High Court on Monday adjourned to Thursday an anticipatory bail petition filed by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MLA P. Moorthy of Madurai in a case booked against him for allegedly intimidating a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member.
Justice N. Sathish Kumar deferred the hearing after the counsel for the complainant, Sankarapandi of Oomachikulam in Madurai, sought time to file an intervening petition listing out the factual details of the case and oppose the plea for grant of advance bail.
The MLA had actually filed the petition before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court through his counsel G. Prabhu Rajadurai. However, since cases related to MPs and MLAs were being handled by Justice Kumar, the petition was transferred to Chennai.
According to the MLA representing Madurai East Assembly constituency, the complainant was in the habit of spreading canards against him on the social media. Hence, he had questioned the complainant about it during a chance meeting between them.
The petitioner said that he was distributing COVID-19 relief materials to people at Oomachikulam on June 22 when he crossed the residence of Mr. Sanakarapandi. Then, he questioned him for spreading false messages on social media just because of political rivalry.
Claiming that both of them don’t know each other personally, the petitioner said, he walked off after advising the complainant to desist from spreading false messages. However, immediately thereafter, the latter appeared to have lodged a false complaint, he said.
Apprehending that the Tallakulam police in Madurai city limits might have registered a case under Sections 323 (causing hurt voluntarily), 294b (uttering obscene words) and 506 II (criminal intimidation) of Indian Penal Code, he sought anticipatory bail.
