The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday a plea by jailed YouTuber Manish Kashyap against whom the stringent National Security Act (NSA) has been invoked for allegedly circulating fake videos of migrant labourers being attacked in Tamil Nadu.
A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala is likely to hear the plea by Kashyap, who was arrested in Bihar after he surrendered at Jagdishpur police station on March 18 and was later brought to Tamil Nadu where NSA was invoked against him in April.
He faces six FIRs in Tamil Nadu and three in Bihar in connection with the matter.
In its reply to the plea of Kashyap, the Tamil Nadu government has said that multiple FIRs that have been registered in the state against Kashyap are not politically motivated but because he disturbed “public order and national integrity” by circulating fake videos of migrant labourers being attacked in the southern state.
In an affidavit, the state government opposed Kashyap’s plea to club the FIRs lodged against him, saying he cannot “seek the shelter of the umbrella of constitutional rights”
The state government claimed Kashyap attempted to instigate violence between Bihari migrant labourers and the people of Tamil Nadu through false and unverified videos.
“The registration of multiple FIRs was not done with any political intention, nor to suppress the constitutional rights of the accused, but with the intention to stop the spread of misinformation and to ensure that the person guilty of such offences does not escape from the clutches of law.