Tuticorin courts orders FIR against TN BJP chief

A magistrate court in the port town of Tuticorin on Thursday ordered police to register a case against Tamil Nadu BJP chief Tamilisai Soundararajan based on a complaint from the father of research scholar Lois Sofia.

Sofia, the 28-year-old research scholar, was arrested and released later in early September for shouting “fascist BJP down, down” at Soundararajan inside an aircraft and at the Tuticorin airport.

Judicial Magistrate-3 Tamilselvi directed the police to file an FIR against Soundararajan and others based on a petition filed by Sofia’s father A Samy, who alleged that the police failed to act on his complaint. The magistrate also ordered the police to file a report on its investigation before the court on November 20.

Samy, a retired doctor, sought registration of a case against Tamilisai and others under sections 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), 506 (1) punishment for criminal intimidation and 294 (b) of the IPC. He has alleged that Tamilisai and her supporters used foul words against his daughter and behaved in an intimidating manner at the airport.

Sofia’s arrest last month had triggered a major political controversy with the police acting within hours of the filing of a complaint by Tamilisai.

According to eye-witnesses, Sophia shouted “fascist BJP down, down” after spotting Tamilisai in the flight but the BJP chief seems to have ignored the comment. However, the young research scholar took to sloganeering at the arrival area of the Tuticorin airport – which is when the comment snowballed into a major controversy.

Video clippings show Tamilisai losing her cool, yelling at the girl for having behaved in a “vulgar manner” and refusing to heed to request from police personnel on duty to ignore the comments.

The video, which went viral on the social media, shows Tamilisai arguing with the girl in question in a loud voice seeking to know how she can term the BJP “fascist” in a public place.