In a bizarre judgement, the Madras High Court has ordered a 26 year old Selvakumar to pay Rs 25,000 each to Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagham (TMMK) and Maliyaduthurai based Christian organization as pre-condition for his anticipatory bail. Selvakumar has been charged with attempt to ‘disturb communal harmony’ through his Facebook post.
Selvakumar who hails from Manalaimedu in Nagapattinam district had posted his views on Facebook few days ago where he had requested people to boycott those shops whose owners had not supported the bandh called in the district when PMK activist Ramalingam was murdered by rabid Islamic preachers in February this year. In his post Selvakumar has written (translated) ‘We will awaken Hindus! Ramalingam, who was vociferous against religious conversions, has been brutally murdered. This Diwali let us boycott the cloth shop that supported the murderers by not participating in the bandh called by shop owners to protest against the murder’.
It can be recalled that Ramalingam, a PMK functionary, an anti-Conversion activist and a staunch Hindu, was brutally murdered by a gang of Islamists in Tamil Nadu on February 5. The murder was in reaction to Ramalingam’s continuous efforts to counter conversions of Dalits and other Hindus by Islamic fundamentalists in and around Tanjavur. Organiser has reported the details of the murder and its aftermath which shook the nation.
Ridiculous Order of HC
Report in local newspapers about the Madras HC order
Though the post was a forward as claimed by Selvakumar, a police inspector at the Manalaimedu police station registered a case against him voluntarily for allegedly trying to disturb the communal harmony. Selvakumar then applied for anticipatory bail at the Madras High Court where he pleaded that he was merely sharing a post as received and that he was not the creator of the post. He also said that he removed the objectionable post as soon as the police asked him to do so.
The anticipatory bail plea was heard by Judge CV Kartikeyan at the High Court. The Public Prosecutor opposed his bail plea arguing that Selvakumar’s post was ‘communal’ as he had called for Hindus to boycott shops belonging to people of a particular community and not purchasing clothes for Deepavali from the said shops. Judge Kartikeyan in his order concurred with the public prosecutor and observed that Selvakumar had ‘posted views that disturb communal harmony’. Hence as a condition for the bail, Selvakumar was ordered to pay Rs. 25,000 each to the charitable trusts run by Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam (TMMK) and a Maliyaduthurai based Christian organization for destitutes.
In bizarre order is reminiscent of the Richa Bharati case in July this year where a Judge in Ranchi High Court had ordered Richa Bharati by the Judicial Magistrate Manish Singh to distribute Quran as a ‘punishment’ for her ‘communal post’. However, the order was subsequently withdrawn after a huge uproar it caused across the nation and protests against such a outlandish order.
The case of Selvakumar is no different as such conditions for bail which are based on whims and fancies of the Judges is seen as setting a bad precedent in jurisprudence. Moreover, the organisation which the Judge has ordered to pay the money has been accused of being close to terror accused organisations and individuals.
Dreaded past of TMMK
In August 2019, the speaker of TMMK was arrested by the Mangalamedu police in Tamil Nadu’s Perambalur district after he threatened to behead Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah for enacting a law to ban instant triple talaq and amending the Article 370.
Further, TMMK was started by MH Jawahirullah in 1995 after ‘breaking away’ from the Islamic terror organisation Al Ummah which he had also founded earlier. Al Ummah was banned by the Government of Tamil Nadu for perpetrating the 1998 Coimbatore bombings which killed nearly 60 people and injured over 200. During investigation into the Coimbatore bombings, leaders of the Jihad Committee and the Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam (TMMK) were arrested in a State-wide crackdown. Among those arrested were Jihad Committee president R.M. Haniffa, general secretary Mohammed Haniffa, student wing secretary Akram Khan, TMMK president and college lecturer M.H. Jawahirulla and treasurer G.M. Pakkar.
In September 2005, TMMK had openly demanded the lifting of the ban on SIMI and had termed it as a ‘spiritual organization’. This was when it was established by the security agencies that SIMI was involved in bomb blasts in various parts of the country. Apart from this, TMMK has also been in support of rabid Islamic preacher and terror sympathizer Zakir Naik.
TMMK Spokesperson was arrested in August 2019 for threatening to behead PM and Home Minister
The ridiculous order of the Madras HC not only sets a bad precedent but also seems to be have neglected the antecedents of the organisations to which the penalty is supposed to be paid. It is for legal luminaries and the supreme court to opine and decide if such orders are to be allowed lest they cause more harm than the intended righteousness.
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