CHENNAI: The Madras high court has refused to quash a 2018 criminal case against Tamil actor S Ve Shekher for allegedly circulating “abusive, derogatory and vulgar” social media comments showing women journalists in poor light, saying such posts are like “arrows shot from the bow” with consequences that the sender must face.
“A message sent/forwarded becomes permanent evidence and it is almost impossible to wriggle out of the consequence that falls out (of that),” Justice N Anand Venkatesh said in his order on Friday.
Shekher had deleted the messages the same day and apologised but the court said that the posts had set off demonstrations in front of his house and led to violence.
The judge observed that once a post is sent, the sender must take ownership for the consequences of the damage done by that “arrow (message)”. It becomes “very difficult to wriggle out by issuing an apology” the HC added.
In this case, the message forwarded by Shekher did cause insult to journalists, particularly women scribes, and provoked breach of public peace, the HC said.
Prima facie, the offence under Section 504 (Intentionally insulting a person to break public peace) of IPC is made out, Justice Venkatesh said.
Multiple complaints were filed against Shekher in Chennai, Karur and Tirunelveli after he circulated the post on his social media account on April 19, 2018.