NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday questioned the Tamil Nadu government’s act of slapping the provisions of the National Security Act against YouTuber Manish Kashyap who was arrested by Tamil Nadu police for allegedly circulating fake videos on the attack of Hindi-speaking Bihari workers.
“Mr Sibal why NSA for this? Why vengeance against this man? “ a bench of CJI DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha remarked while it sought the state’s response in his plea for seeking to quash his detention under NSA. The bench also acceded to Kashyap’s counsel's request of directing the Tamil Nadu government to not move him from Central Prison Madurai to any other prison till the next date of hearing (April 28) on the basis of production warrants. During the course of the hearing, the bench said that the drift of all the FIRs appear to be the same and expressed its inclination of transferring all the FIRs against him.
In a related development, SC on the same day also asked Nupur J Sharma and Rahul Roushan, editor and founder of online portal OpIndia to approach Madras HC for quashing the FIRs registered against them for allegedly spreading fake news of an attack on Biharis in the state. The bench also granted them protection from “no coercive action” for four weeks.
Kashyap in his plea while seeking interim bail had sought consolidation of FIRs registered against him. He in his plea had contended that many false FIRs were registered against him in Bihar and Tamil Nadu at the behest of the present ruling government. “The cases against him have been filed because he has raised the issue of violence against the Bihar-based migrant labour in Tamil Nadu on social media,” the plea had stated.
Apprising the court about Kashyap’s arrest, Senior Advocate Siddhartha Dave submitted that multiple FIRs were filed against him. He urged the court to club and transfer the FIRs registered against him in Tamil Nadu and Patna to Bihar. Opposing SC's inclination for passing an order for clubbing the FIR, for the Tamil Nadu government, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal said FIRs were registered against him under different acts.
He said that Kashyap had visited multiple places in Tamil Nadu under the guise of interviewing people and had published videos that had caused widespread panic and fear among migrants. He also said that the same was made with a political agenda.