The Madras High Court has ordered a youth charged with posting objectionable content on Facebook to pay Rs 25,000 each to a trust run by the Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam (TMMK) and an orphanage run by a Christian organisation in Mayiladuthirai (Mayavaram) in Nagapattinam district as a condition for his anticipatory bail, Swarajya Mag reported.

As per the report, the 26-year old Selvakumar, in a Facebook post, had urged people from the Hindu community to boycott those shops that had not taken part in a one-day closure called by the locals in Mayiladuthurai on 6 February this year. The closure was a protest against the murder of V. Ramalingam by criminals associated with the Radical Islamic organization PFI. The Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) leader in Tamil Nadu was brutally murdered for opposing religious conversion.

Read: Ramalingam murder case: NIA arrests Myden Ahmed Shali, head of the ‘Dawah’ team linked to PFI

After taking note of the Facebook post that lamented the fact that certain people had also sympathized with the murders in addition to not participating in the closure, an inspector of Manalmedu police station, which is near Mayiladuthurai town, filed a case against Selvakumar, on his own volition. Afterwards, when Selvakumar approached the Court for anticipatory bail, he was ordered to pay a huge amount of money.

- Advertisement -

In his petition, Selvakumar had said that the post was not even his own, he had only reposted something that was created by another person. He also said that he had immediately deleted the post when asked to do so. However, it did not matter before the Madras High Court.

Most disturbingly, however, Selvakumar has been ordered to pay Rs. 25,000 to TMMK, an Islami fundamentalist organization. The headquarters speaker of the organization was arrested in August earlier this year after he threatened to behead Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah following the abrogation of Article 370. In 2012, TMMK was involved in an attack on the US Consulate General’s office at Chennai that involved vandalism during a protest. In 2013, TMMK had also demanded a ban on Kamal Hassan’s movie Vishwaroopam.

In July 2016, the organization was one of many Muslim organizations that demanded that the Central government stop portraying Radical Islamic preacher Zakir Naik as a terrorist. Since then, it has been discovered that most of the 127-odd terrorists arrested by security agencies in India for suspected ISIS links were inspired by the speeches of the Radical Islamic preacher.

The particular judgment by the Madras High Court reminds one of the controversial verdict passed by the Ranchi High Court earlier this year. Richa Bharti was ordered to distribute copies of the Quran for bail after she had allegedly posted objectionable content on Facebook. After massive outrage and protests, the Court was forced to take back its ridiculous order.