Ex-BJP IT wing chief stopped from posting hate comments against Tamil Nadu minister

The Madras High Court has restrained CTR Nirmal Kumar (former BJP IT-wing chief who moved to ally AIADMK last month) from making defamatory comments--specifically unsubstantiated allegations of corruption– against electricity minister Senthil Balaji.

Updated on: Apr 13, 2023, 24:52:17 IST

By Divya Chandrababu, Chennai

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The Madras High Court has restrained CTR Nirmal Kumar (former BJP IT-wing chief who moved to ally AIADMK last month) from making defamatory comments--specifically unsubstantiated allegations of corruption– against electricity minister Senthil Balaji.

Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy on Wednesday granted the interim injunction and directed Kumar to take down all such existing posts against the Minister made without any material to substantiate the allegation of corruption.

Balaji filed a civil suit that Kumar had repeatedly made slanderous and defamatory remarks against him in Tweets and in press interviews without any evidence of corruption. Balaji had also drawn on Nirmal’s high number of followers on Twitter given that he was the BJP IT wing head at that time.

Submitting the tweets and video, Balaji’s petition had said that the 1st Defendant— Nirmal “is simply chanting the Plaintiff’s name and associating it with wrongdoing to defame the Plaintiff and gain political mileage.” The 1st Defendant has published these falsities on his Twitter handle which has around 105,900 followers so his tweets have been retweeted and shared by several others, “thereby causing a rapid spread of misinformation amongst the general public and severely tarnishing the Plaintiff’s reputation and image amongst the general public,” the suit stated.

Nirmal’s main allegation at that time had been that the state-run liquor monopoly TASMAC (Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation Limited) shops are illegally selling bottles above the MRP.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Divya Chandrababu
Divya Chandrababu is an award-winning political and human rights journalist based in Chennai, India. Divya is presently Assistant Editor of the Hindustan Times where she covers Tamil Nadu & Puducherry. She started her career as a broadcast journalist at NDTV-Hindu where she anchored and wrote prime time news bulletins. Later, she covered politics, development, mental health, child and disability rights for The Times of India. Divya has been a journalism fellow for several programs including the Asia Journalism Fellowship at Singapore and the KAS Media Asia- The Caravan for narrative journalism. Divya has a master's in politics and international studies from the University of Warwick, UK. As an independent journalist Divya has written for Indian and foreign publications on domestic and international affairs.Read More

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