Legislators of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam walked out of the Tamil Nadu Assembly on Wednesday after the Speaker did not allow discussion about a Bharatiya Janata Party leader who had made derogatory remarks about female journalists in April.
The Opposition party wanted to demand the arrest of S Ve Shekher, but Speaker P Dhanapal said the matter was sub judice.
On June 1, the Supreme Court denied Shekher interim protection from arrest. The state government told the court that it had filed a chargesheet in the case, after which the vacation bench asked Shekher to appear before the magistrate’s court and apply for regular bail.
Shekher had moved the Supreme Court after the Madras High Court rejected his anticipatory bail plea.
When Leader of the Opposition MK Stalin asked for discussion to demand Shekher’s arrest, Dhanapal said a local court had issued summons to him to appear before it on June 20 and a chargesheet had been filed in the case.
When the Speaker refused to accept Stalin’s request despite his insistence, the DMK leader walked out with his party colleagues.
A journalists’ group in Tamil Nadu had filed a police complaint against Shekher after he shared a Facebook post on April 19 titled, “Madurai University, Governor and the Virgin Cheeks of a Girl”, from the account of a user named Thirumalai S. The post was about Governor Banwarilal Purohit patting a journalist on her cheek during a press conference. “Recent complaints show that they [journalists] cannot become reporters or anchors without sleeping with big shots,” the post read.
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