TN: Senior BJP leader sentenced to one month Jail for offensive post against women journos
Chennai: A Chennai court has handed down a one-month prison sentence and imposed a fine of Rs 15,000 on senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former MLA S Ve Shekher. The case pertains to an offensive social media post targeting women journalists that Shekher had shared in April 2018.
Chennai Special Court judge G Jayavel, while delivering the verdict, emphasized that the crime had been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. The court observed that the post, which included derogatory and abusive comments about women journalists, warranted legal consequences.
In April 2018, the then Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit patted the cheek of a woman journalist and subsequently apologized for it. However, Shekar had shared a post on Facebook with derogatory and abusive comments about women journalists, for which he was booked by the police based on a complaint by the Tamil Nadu Journalist Protection Welfare Association.
Shekher, in an attempt to challenge the case, had approached the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court seeking its quashing. However, the High Court declined to do so, affirming the legal standing of the charges against him.
The offensive post, initially shared by Shekher's friend Thirumalai Sa, accused women journalists in Tamil Nadu of engaging in inappropriate behavior to advance their careers. Shekher, by forwarding the post, faced charges under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including intentional insult, statements conducing to public mischief, and insulting the modesty of a woman.
The post by Thirumalai Sa, Shekher’s friend, without naming the woman journalist in the incident said that her intention was to ‘target the Governor and Modi’. “It is actually the governor who has to wash his hands with Phenol after touching her. These (TN media persons) are cheap and disgusting creatures. Most people who work in the media in TN are usually Illiterate, cheap and don't have any general knowledge. This woman is not any different." The post also went on to accuse all women journalists in Tamil Nadu of sleeping around. "Recently this disgusting fact has come out through complaints that women cannot become reporters or anchors unless they sleep with top bosses. And with these faces, they come out to ask questions to the governor," it had stated.
Despite paying the imposed fine, Shekher submitted a petition in court, expressing his intention to appeal in the High Court. Consequently, the sentence has been stayed pending the outcome of the appeal.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
