He had been arrested for remarks against the CJI during an interview to a YouTube channel.
Well-known publisher and political commentator Badri Seshadri, who was arrested on July 29 for his remarks against the Chief Justice of India with regard to the violence in Manipur, was granted bail on August 1.
The Kunnam Magistrate court in Perambalur district, which had sent him to judicial custody until August 11, granted him bail on August 1. He was asked to stay for a fortnight at Srirangam in the neighbouring Tiruchi district until further orders. He also was directed to appear at a police station there every day.
It is learnt that Magistrate Kavitha, while hearing the bail petition, declined the Kunnam police’s demand seeking custody of the publisher for “further inquiry”.
The Tamil Nadu police had arrested Badri Seshadri from his Chennai home on July 29. Seshadri, the founder of Kizhakku Pathippagam, had made the controversial comments during an interview to a YouTube channel. The arrest was made based on a complaint filed by a lawyer, Kaviyarasu, of Kadur village in Kunnam police station in Perambalur district.
Accordingly, the police filed cases under Sections 153 and 153A (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot and promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc.,) and 505 (1),(b) (with intent to cause, or which is likely to cause, fear or alarm to the public, or to any section of the public whereby any person may be induced to commit an offence against the State or against the public tranquillity) of the IPC.
Sources told Frontline that a posse of policemen from Perambalur district came to Seshadri’s house in Mylapore, Chennai, in the wee hours of July 29 and served him the arrest warrant. He was then taken to Perambalur and produced before the Kunnam judicial magistrate court, which remanded him to judicial custody until August 11.
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu BJP president K. Annamalai criticised Seshadri’s arrest. He said on Twitter: “The DMK government is unable to respond to the opinions of ordinary people and is resorting to arrests.”
The arrest evoked widespread criticism. Several writers and intellectuals, while criticising the writer for his comments against the CJI as “unwarranted”, also condemned his early morning arrest saying it was “unwarranted”.
Noted writer and columnist Ramachandra Guha wrote a letter to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, calling the arrest “political vindictiveness.” He said: “I do not endorse Mr Seshadri’s political views, yet his arrest is inconsistent with the principles of natural justice.”
A group of noted writers and public figures, including Ambai, A.R. Venkatachalapathy, T.M. Krishna, Perumal Murugan, Paul Zacharia, Stalin Rajangam, Rajan Krishnan and Kannan Sundaram, wrote to the Chief Minister saying that although the writer’s “outburst” deserved unequivocal condemnation, the arrest was “an extreme reaction to such an infringement and goes against the spirit of the constitutional assurance of freedom of expression”.
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