DIG Varun Kumar urges Madras High Court to restrain NTK leader Seeman from making defamatory allegations

The Hindu

3 days ago

Deputy Inspector General of Police (Tiruchi Range) Varun Kumar has approached the Madras High Court to restrain Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) leader S. Seeman from making defamatory, false, slanderous, or scandalous allegations against him through the media.
Justice K. Kumaresh Babu accepted a request made by senior counsel P.H. Arvind Pandian, representing the DIG, for an urgent hearing of the plea due to serious reputational damage being caused, and directed the High Court Registry to list the matter on August 6, 2025.
In the meantime, since advocate S. Shankar, representing Mr. Seeman, too entered appearance and objected to the grant of an ex-parte interim injunction, the judge granted him time till the next hearing for filing of a counter affidavit on behalf of the NTK leader.
Filing an affidavit in support of his interim injunction application, the DIG listed out his professional achievements ever since he joined the Indian Police Service (IPS) after securing All India Rank-3 in the 2010 Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) civil services examination.
Stating that Mr. Seeman had founded the NTK in 2010, the DIG said, he was a politician known for his demagoguery and controversial statements and actions, which had attracted criticism from various political parties as well as others for their polarising nature.
'His views and statements have, on numerous occasions, been seen as inciting division, and his rhetoric has stirred public debate,' Mr. Kumar said, and claimed that the politician began a personal tirade against him ever since the latter took action against a party member.
In 2020-21, NTK member 'Sattai' Duraimurugan was arrested by Tiruvallur district police for having caused a law and order issue due to a false claim on his YouTube channel about the death of Foxconn factory workers due to food poisoning. He was also detained under the Goondas Act.
'At that time, I was serving as the Superintendent of Police, Tiruvallur district. Following 'Sattai' Duraimurugan's arrest, the Respondent herein (Mr. Seeman), the Chief Coordinator of Naam Tamilar Katchi, developed intense animosity towards me,' the DIG said.
Complaining that the NTK leader had been making disparaging remarks against him in the media since then, the DIG said, Mr. Seeman had termed him 'a beggar' besides sullying the image of the entire police force in the country by stating that he was 'after all an IPS officer.'
The DIG accused the NTK leader of also insinuating that he got promoted from one rank to the next not because of merit but because of his political allegiance. The officer said, the followers of the politicians too had begun harassing him and his family members on social media, thereby causing immense mental agony.