An early morning arrest of the editor of a Tamil weekly in connection with an alleged defamation case and the court’s refusal to the request of the police for his judicial custody has sent shock waves across the social and political circles in Chennai.
Gopal, known popularly as Nakeeran Gopal, editor of the weekly Nakeeran, was arrested by a team of police officials from Chennai airport early Tuesday, from where he was to fly off to Pune. He was brought to Chindradipet police station and grilled for some time. Though he was presented by the police in a local court with a request to remand him in judicial custody, the judge rejected the plea by the police.
Though no reason for the arrest was forthcoming, one of the police officials who was a member of the team that took Gopal into custody said that he was picked up in connection with a complaint by Raj Bhavan in Chennai for an article published in the April issue of his weekly which portrayed the Raj Bhavan staff in poor light. The article had alleged that Nirmal Devi, an assistant professor from Tirunelveli district who was arrested by the police on charges of enticing her girl students for sexual favours , was working for the Raj Bhavan staff in Chennai.
Nirmala Devi, who was arrested following complaints from some of the girl students is still in judicial custody. Leaders of all political parties barring the AIADMK and the BJP had condemned the arrest of Gopal.
In another incident, a Chennai-based journalist alleged on a social media site that national award winning poet Vairamuthu had sexually molested a woman who was working with him. The victim in messages to the journalist had stated that Vairamuthu had misbehaved with her when she went to work with him in a project in his office-cum-residence.
The posting by the journalist says that the message was sent to her by the victim herself. The words of the victim were posted in the site sans her name. “I respected him as he is a legend, famous poet and national award winner. In the pretext of explaining lyrics, he came to me, hugged me and kissed me. I did not know what to do. I said Ok sir, thank you and ran away from his house”, said the posting.
The victim further stated that people were asked to meet him at his Kodambakkam residence (a Chennai suburb once famous for film and recording studios). “I have shuddered being alone in a room with him though my work gave me more instances where I had to work with him.”
The victim got a morale booster when ace singer Chinmayi Sripada joined the bandwagon accusing Vairamuthu in harshest of words. “The industry knows. The men know. The time is bloody up,” tweeted Chinmayi. Two more leading actresses too came out in support of the victim.
She further stated that the whole industry knew that Vairamuthu was a “predator” and people were scared to expose him due to his political connections. “He had allegedly used these connections to silence his other victims,” says the message posted by the journalist.
Vairamuthu had been honoured with Padma Bhushan by the President of India in 2014 and has won the national award for the best lyricist a record number of seven times.
Early this year, the poet, who was close to late DMK chief M Karunanidhi had earned the wrath of Sangh Parivar organisations for alleged derogatory remarks against Andal, one of the 12 Vaishavite Saints. The poet has not responded to the charges at the time of going to Press.