Tamil Nadu police say they would let off State BJP spokesperson if he apologises

Chennai Police, on August 13, had filed a case against actor-politician and spokesperson of BJP S. Ve. Shekher for insulting the national flag. The FIR was registered under Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, following a complaint filed against him on Tuesday for insulting the national flag and defaming the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, a weekly news website reported.

According to the website, the Chennai Crime Branch Police registered a case under Section 2 of Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971. The section carries a punishment of imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both.

As against this, the actor had applied for bail in the High Court, the hearing of which came up on Friday. Conducting the proceedings on virtual mode, Justice A D Jagadish Chandra was informed by the government counsel that S Ve Shekher should give an assurance that such acts would not take place in future and no further action would be pursued if he apologises for his act in the Court. The Court has adjourned the case till September 2 for Shekher to respond.

Earlier, Shekher had put up a video in his channel SVESS50TV. In the video, Shekher had reacted to Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami condemning the incident of miscreants throwing a saffron shawl on MGR statue in Puducherry. Shekher said in video, "The saffron colour is there in the national flag too. Can we take off the saffron colour and have just green and white colour in the flag."

Shekher's video, said C. Rajarathinam, a complainant from Nungambakkam, insinuated that the tricolour represents Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. Alleging that such comments on social media will only lead to communal tension ahead of the Independence Day celebrations (to be held two days later then), the complainant said Shekher had also defamed the chief minister.