CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has set aside the judgment of a special court for MP/MLA cases which awarded six months simple imprisonment along with fine to BJP leader H Raja for making inflammatory comments against rationalist leader “Thanthai Periyar” EV Ramasamy on social media. Justice V Lakshminarayanan on Tuesday allowed the appeals filed by the BJP leader and acquitted him of all the charges.
Justice Lakshminarayanan set aside the special court’s judgment, saying that the court failed to properly appreciate the evidence. The court also said the prosecution had failed to prove the charges beyond reasonable doubts.
The judge held photocopies of screenshots of Facebook and Twitter posts on news websites cannot be treated as primary evidence. For a social media post or comment or message to be admissible in court, it must strictly adhere to the requirements of Section 65B of the Indian Evidence Act, he said.