Well known publisher and political commentator, Badri Seshadri who was arrested early in the morning on 29 July for his comments about the Chief Justice of India’s remarks about the violence in Manipur was granted bail by the Perambalur district court today (1 August).

Seshadri was booked under Sections 153 (Wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 153 A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony and 505 (Statements conducing to public mischief) based on a complaint at the Kunnam police station in Perambalur district filed by an advocate Kaviayarasu.

In a video clip shared on social media, he was heard saying, “Yesterday, the Supreme Court like a big…. I don’t know what word to say. ‘If you can’t do it (contain the violence), we will get down and do it.’

“We should give a gun in the hand of Chandrachud (Chief Justice of India) and ask him to go there and do what he can to restore peace. Simply, talking anything without relation.

“Can you (judiciary) enter into the realm of governance? What fault did you find in what is being done [by the government] there [to restore normalcy]? Two groups are fighting. It is a hilly terrain. A complex land. In that, a few murders will happen. Why did they fight? Could we have prevented the reason for the two groups fighting? It can’t be done easily.”

Condemning the arrest, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president K Annamalai had said that the government was resorting to arrests in order to combat the opinions put out by common pople. Further, he asked if arresting people whom the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government wanted to take revenge against was the only job of the Tamil Nadu police.

Also Read: Badri Seshadri Is Only The Latest In A String Of Arrests

Tamil Nadu: Arrest Of Ace Publisher Badri Seshadri And Totalitarianism of Dravidianist Politics