Hate speech: Court warns of CBI probe against Ponmudy
Madras high court
has warned of ordering a CBI probe if the Tamil Nadu police hesitate to conduct an investigation into the cases filed against former minister K Ponmudy for his alleged hate speech against women and Saiva-Vaishnava sects.
Justice P Velmurugan made the observation on Friday during a suo motu proceeding initiated by Justice N Anand Venkatesh against the former minister due to police inaction.
When the plea came up for hearing, advocate-general P S Raman submitted that complaints lodged at three police stations against Ponmudy were investigated, and it was concluded that his speech did not amount to hate speech, so those complaints were closed.
Since then, 112 complaints have been filed across Tamil Nadu. The intelligence inquiry on these is still pending, he added, and said the former minister had quoted an incident that happened around 60 years ago.
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Refusing to concur, the court warned that if police hesitate to inquire into the complaints against the former minister, investigation could be transferred to CBI. The judge wondered why the former minister chose to quote this particular incident when many other good incidents had happened at the same time.
"A minister should understand what he/she says. Even freedom of speech has reasonable restrictions," the court said and adjourned the hearing to July 18.
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