Chennai: The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court has quashed a case against YouTuber Maridhas, filed soon after his controversial post on CDS Bipin Rawat chopper crash.
However, the BJP sympathiser is unlikely to come out of jail anytime soon, since he was arrested in another case. The Egmore Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Court on Monday remanded Maridhas, arrested on a complaint by News18 Media Group, in judicial custody till 27 December.
Maridhas, who was already arrested by the Madurai City Police in connection with another case pertaining to his critical comments against the ruling DMK and lodged in Theni Prison, was formally arrested in Nes18 Media Group case by the Cyber Crime Wing of the Tamilnadu police on Saturday.
He was brought from Theni and produced before CMM N Kothandaraj who remanded him in judicial custody. The Cyber Crime police registered on a complaint for allegedly forging an e-mail purported to be that of an associate executive editor of the News18 media group.
The Cyber Crime Wing filed the FIR last year, under sections 465, 469, 471, and 66 (B) r/w 43 of the Information Technology Act following a complaint from Vinay Sarawagi, associate executive editor, News18 group.
In his complaint, Sarawagi said Maridhas had posted a video on his YouTube channel, alleging that âNews 18 Tamilnaduâ TV channel was operated by supporters of either Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) or Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and that they were actively pursuing an anti-Hindu agenda.
The media group also said that about 2,500 people emailed the company /channel at the instigation of Maridhas, making similar false and baseless allegations which were received at its Chennai office.
In another YouTube video, Maridhas displayed an e-mail which was allegedly sent to him by Sarawagi, showing that the latter on behalf of the channel management accepted the allegations leveled against him in Maridhasâs earlier YouTube video.
Sarwagi said that the e-mail was not sent by him and that it was forged with the intention to spread fake news and cause damage and harm the reputation of the channel.
Acting on the complaint, Maridhas was formally arrested in this case and remanded in custody.