MADURAI: A CPI (ML) functionary found himself in trouble after he had jokingly stated in a social media post that he is ‘practising shooting at Sirumalai hills”. The Vadipatti police, who failed to see the humour, misconstrued it thinking the sexagenarian was making preparations to wage war against the State!
Lucky for him, the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court caught the ‘joke’ and quashed the FIR registered against him. The man mentioned above is C Mathivanan (62) and the judge who heard his plea and came to his rescue is Justice GR Swaminathan. The facts of the case, as narrated by the judge in his order, was that Mathivanan had gone on a trip to Sirumalai hills with his daughter and son-in-law on September 16, 2021. He had taken pictures and posted them on his social media page with a Tamil caption which loosely translates as “Trip to Sirumalai for shooting practice”.
The petitioner’s attempt at humour did not go down well with the Vadipatti police who registered a case against him under Sections 120B (Punishment for Criminal Conspiracy), 122 (Collecting arms etc with intent to wage war against the government), 505(1)(b) (Statements conducing to public mischief with intent to cause fear to the public) and 507 (Criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication) of IPC. “They arrested him but mercifully, the Vadipatti judicial magistrate had a sense of humour and refused the remand,” the judge noted.
Justice Swaminathan pointed out that the post was not an anonymous communication as alleged and no weapons were seen in the photos or recovered from the petitioner.