Chennai: A Tamil Nadu court Thursday granted bail to a YouTuber arrested for alleged derogatory comments against DMK patriarch late M. Karunanidhi, the father of Chief Minister M.K. Stalin.
The Trichy court refused to remand the social influencer and member of the Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) party, “Sattai” Durai Murugan, to judicial custody after hearing arguments from both sides.
He was arrested by the state police’s Cyber Crime wing near a resort in Courtallam in Tenkasi district earlier Thursday for disparaging remarks made against Karunanidhi’s caste while campaigning for a party candidate in the Vikravandi by-election.
He was taken to the Trichy Cyber Crime office in the evening and produced before the Trichy First Class Additional District Court for judicial custody. But single judge P. Swaminathan granted him bail.
After his release, Durai Murugan alleged that the ruling DMK government was trying to kill him. “After arresting me, the police violated norms of taking me in a police vehicle and drove me all the way to Madurai in my own car. On the way, we met with an accident near Madurai in which a few people in the vehicle were injured and I suffered back pain. Only after the accident, they moved me to a police vehicle and took me to Trichy,” Durai Murugan said.
He claimed he was arrested for referring to a song which had the word “sandalan”.
“Until the arrest, I never knew that it was a casteist slur. In fact, I didn’t even utter the word, I was just referring to the songs which had the word. The song was written by somebody else and sung by somebody else. The song is even on YouTube. None of them were questioned, but I was arrested for referring to it,” he claimed.
Sandalan is another word for a caste group part of the Scheduled Castes list.
Condemning his arrest, NTK coordinator Seeman said, “If the BJP, which arrests people for their speeches is called fascist by DMK, then, DMK is also a fascist party.”
Seeman also dared the state government to arrest him if he uttered the same word.
Meanwhile, the Opposition AIADMK’s general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami and BJP Tamil Nadu president K. Annamalai also condemned the arrest.
This is not the first time Durai Murugan has courted controversy. In 2021, he was arrested for derogatory remarks against Karunanidhi, linking him with actor Kushboo Sundar, when she was with the party.
After coming out on bail, he was again arrested for making uncomplimentary remarks about Chief Minister M.K. Stalin during a protest in Kanniyakumari. After the DMK came to power in 2021, Durai Murugan was charged with 11 cases for making alleged derogatory remarks against the ruling DMK and its leaders.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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