Chennai Court Convicts BJP Politician S.Ve Shekher For Offensive Post Against Women Journalists, Suspends The Sentence for 30 Days

Shekher has been sentenced to one month simple imprisonment and a fine of RS. 2500/- for the offence under S. 504 IPC and one month simple imprisonment with a fine of Rs. 2500/- for the offence under Section 509 of the IPC. He has also been sentenced to one month simple imprisonment and fine of Rs. 10,000 for the offence under S. 4 of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act 2002. The cases were registered after Sheker had forwarded an abusive, derogatory and vulgar comment on his Facebook account in April 2018.

Though Shekher had previously approached the Madras High Court seeking to quash the criminal proceedings initiated against him, the court refused to grant him relief. Shekher had claimed that he had merely forwarded the messages received from one Mr Thirumalai Sa and had even removed the derogatory post on the same day. The court, however, noted that a person forwarding the message will also be liable for its contents and added that Shekher being a person of high statute and having many followers, should have exercised more caution while forwarding messages.

Refusing to intervene in the proceedings, the court had also observed that the offences were rightly invoked as the message posted by Shekher virtually outrages the modesty of women and since it also contained an indecent and vitriolic attack on a particular woman and other women Press reporters, thus attracting the offences under Section 509 IPC and Section 4 of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act 2002.