Five months after BJP national secretary H. Raja made the controversial tweet in which he insinuated that DMK MP Kanimozhi was an ‘illegitimate child’, the Karumathampatti police in Coimbatore booked him on defamatory charges.
He has been booked under Sections 500 (Punishment for defamation) and 501 (Printing or engraving matter known to be defamatory) of the IPC.
Mr. Raja had tweeted the remark on April 18, a day after Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit addressed media persons when his name surfaced in a telephonic conversation of a woman professor who allegedly sought sexual favours from girl students for higher officials.
ADVERTISEMENT
He had tweeted in Tamil that the press persons who bombarded questions on Governor on the ‘sex for degree’ controversy would dare to pose similar questions to a leader who had nominated his illegitimate daughter to Rajya Sabha. However, the tweet had not named Ms. Kanimozhi directly.
The case was registered on a complaint filed by K. Velusamy, Kaniyur panchayat secretary of DMK. Mr. Raja's tweet had triggered widespread agitation by the DMK and other parties back then.