Chennai, Sept 1:
The Madras High Court has quashed the six-month jail sentences imposed on Tamil Nadu BJP coordination committee leader H Raja in two cases relating to his controversial social media posts about Periyar and DMK MP Kanimozhi.
Raja had posted on Twitter in March 2018 that Periyar statues would be removed in Tamil Nadu, referring to the demolition of a Lenin statue in Tripura. In April 2018, he had also allegedly made derogatory remarks against Kanimozhi on his Twitter account.
Based on complaints lodged by the Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam and other organisations, Erode police registered cases against Raja.
The special court for cases against MPs and MLAs in Chennai, which heard the two cases, sentenced Raja to six months’ imprisonment in each case in December 2024.
Raja subsequently approached the Madras High Court seeking to set aside the convictions.
Justice V Lakshminarayanan, hearing the appeals, observed that there was no evidence to establish that Raja’s social media posts had caused any disruption in society.
On this ground, the High Court set aside the convictions and six-month prison sentences imposed by the special court in both cases.