CHENNAI: A 33-year old man has been arrested and remanded in judicial custody on Tuesday in Tamil Nadufor a social media post inviting people to a “beef festival”. S Ezhilan, president of Tamil Nadu Kudiarasu Katchi, had put up the Facebook post on July 13, inviting ‘kaavis’ (those wearing saffron) and assuring them a prominent seat at the festival. He was booked under relevant sections of the IPC.

The FIR was registered on the basis of a complaint by a village administrative officer. While noises are being made on political side, saying the state’s response to the post was disproportionate, lawyers said since an element of mischief was discernible, the remand by the jurisdictional magistrate can’t be called faulty. Justice D Hariparanthaman, former judge of Madras HC, said though the reference of ‘kaavis’ could have been avoided, police could have ignored it as the post bordered on freedom of expression

