Senior BJP leader H Raja.
Credit: Instagram/@hrajaofficial
Chennai: Senior BJP leader H Raja was on Monday sentenced to six months imprisonment by a special court for his derogatory remarks against DMK MP Kanimozhi and threatening to raze the statue of Dravidian legend and social reformer E V R Periyar.
The court, which also imposed a fine on Raja, however, suspended the sentence for 30 days after a request made by the BJP leader’s counsel to appeal against the order.
G Jayavel, Judge of the Special Court for Trial of Cases Against MLAs/MPs in Chennai, passed the orders in two filed against Raja for his controversial remarks made in 2018.
Raja, known for his penchant for stoking rows, is a senior leader of the BJP and was the chairman of the coordination committee that ran the Tamil Nadu BJP for three months in the absence of its state chief K Annamalai, who went to Britain to pursue a fellowship.
The court orders came after the Madras High Court refused to quash cases against Raja in this regard and directed the special court to complete the trial in three months.
Justice N Anand Venkatesh of the Madras High Court had said Raja’s statements hovered around “hate speech” and asked him to stand trial.
The senior BJP leader also moved the Supreme Court in this regard dismissing the Special Leave Petitions while highlighting the need for politicians to be circumspect about their public comments.
Raja had in March 2018 said it was the turn of the statues of Periyar to be demolished in Tamil Nadu after a bust of Marxist icon Lenin was razed down in Tripura following the BJP’s victory in the state. In April, Raja had called Kanimozhi an “illegitimate child” of late DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi which led to cases against him.
After the judgement, Raja said the court has given time till December 31 for him to appeal against the judgment. “These cases were foisted against by my political opponents. While my lawyers will take care of the legal angle, my fight against the Dravidian stock people will continue. There is no going back on the ideological fight (against the DMK),” the BJP leader added.