Tamil weekly's editor arrested for articles on Governor… freed within hours by court

Chennai: In an embarrassment for the Tamil Nadu police, a well-known editor of a vernacular weekly was arrested Tuesday on a complaint from Raj Bhavan over articles that allegedly disparaged Governor Banwarilal Purohit but walked free within hours after a court rejected the police's plea for his remand. R Gopal, the editor of Tamil magazine Nakkheeran, who had written articles on a sex scandal involving a woman college teacher, was picked up by police from the airport here before he could board a flight to Pune, officials said.

As he walked free from police custody, Gopal thanked the court and the media fraternity for "standing by freedom of expression and freedom of press". He also thanked political leaders including DMK president M K Stalin for support. Gopal was arrested under Section 124 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which relates to "assaulting President, Governor etc with intent to compel or restrain the exercise of any lawful power".

Gopal's advocate said that the application of Section 124 was challenged in a city court where he was produced after arrest. "An assault on the governor has two sides. One— use of force; two— stop him from discharging his duties. If force were to be used, they should have met at the same place. It has not been mentioned in the complaint how the governor's duties were affected," Gopal's counsel later told reporters.

He said that the magistrate accepted the contention and rejected the police's plea for remand. Veteran journalist and former Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu N Ram also presented his views before the court, deprecating the use of Section 124 in Gopal's case.

"This release is a great hope for freedom of expression and freedom of the Press. Nakkheeran's work will continue," Gopal, who got huge media attention when he successfully negotiated the release of Kannada film superstar Rajkumar, held captive by forest brigand Veerappan in 2000, told reporters. Rajkumar was released after spending 108 days in captivity after several rounds of talks by Gopal in the forests where Veerappan's writ ran large. Tuesday's police action followed a complaint from Raj Bhavan over publication of a series of articles in Nakkheeran related to an assistant professor of a private college who allegedly asked girl students to extend sexual favours to university officials in return for marks and money.

Assistant professor Nirmala Devi, who taught at the college in Aruppukottai affiliated to the Madurai Kamaraj University, was later arrested. The scandal came to light in April this year after an audio tape of a purported conversation between Nirmala Devi and some students surfaced.