Tamil Nadu leader S Seeman booked for hate speech against Hindi speakers: Police

On Feb 13, in a public meeting ahead of the Erode east bypoll, the NTK chief and Tamil nationalist had said that north Indians and Hindi speakers should be dealt with an ‘iron fist’ in the state.

The Tamil Nadu police have booked Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) chief and Tamil nationalist leader S Seeman for hate speech against migrant workers from north India and Hindi speakers, officials aware of the matter said on Sunday.

NTK chief and Tamil nationalist leader S Seeman.

The action came after Seeman in a public meeting conducted ahead of the Erode east bypoll on February 13 said that north Indians and Hindi speakers should be dealt with an iron fist in the state.

On March 11, election strategist Prashant Kishor had demanded action against Seeman by tweeting a 45-second video clip of his speech. On Saturday, police said that they found he had made objectionable comments against Hindi speakers and booked Seeman.

Earlier, a case was filed against Seeman on February 22 for his remarks on the Dalit community during the same speech under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989, a police officer said. Police have now added more sections against him over his comments against Hindi speakers such as 153 (b) (c) and 506 (1) relating to criminal intimidation.

A senior government official told HT that Seeman should have been booked even earlier as rumours and fake videos claiming migrant labourers were attacked in Tamil Nadu alarmed people in the state and the rest of the country over the past two weeks.

11 FIRs had been registered by the Tamil Nadu police against those allegedly spreading fake news, including Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai, the Twitter handle of the BJP’s Bihar unit @BJP4Bihar, BJP spokesperson Prashant Umrao, Dainik Bhaskar editor Mohammed Tanveer, OpIndia web portal’s CEO Rahul Roushan and its editor Nupur Sharma.

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