A judicial magistrate court issued non-bailable arrest warrant against Tamil actors Suriya, Sathyaraj and six others on Tuesday, May 23. The order was passed as they failed to appear before the court over a defamation case filed by a freelance journalist.
What is the issue all about?
A Tamil daily had carried a story on the alleged involvement of Tamil actresses in a prostitution ring way back in 2009. This story had come under severe criticism as it projected the Tamil film industry in a bad light.
The Nadigar Sangam had organised a meet to condemn the daily for spreading fake stories about the film industry and many celebrities had made sharp remarks over the newspaper story.
The Nadigar Sangam had also filed a case against the daily under section 4 of the Tamil Nadu Women Harassment Act. Later, the newspaper apologised and editor Lenin was arrested by Tamil Nadu Police in Chennai.
Some of the comments made by Suriya, Sathyaraj, Sarathkumar, Sripriya, Vijayakumar, Arun Vijay, Vivek and Cheran in the meeting were objected by a freelance journalist named M Rozario, who felt that the actors should have targeted the particular daily instead of all journalists.
He filed a case against the eight actors in 2009. The case came up for hearing recently and the actors were ordered to appear before the court on May 15. As they failed to apear, judicial magistrate Senthikumar Rajavel issued the non-bailable arrest warrant on May 23.
