The Madras High Court has granted anticipatory bail to YouTuber and Naam Tamilar Katchi member Sattai Durai Murugan, Bar and Bench reported. He was booked by the Trichy police last month after his followers and party supporters put out hateful comments on X against a local police officer.

Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy of the Madurai bench granted bail after noting that Murugan himself had not made any comments. He added that “virtual warriors” should perhaps ask themselves if it was necessary to respond, before posting anything on social media. The judge, in order on September 5, also quoted from the classic Tamil poem Aranericharam to explain that hateful comments on social media can cause grave hurt to victims.

It all started after the officer, the defacto complainant in the case, made a post on X criticising Murugan for his comments. He soon received hateful and threatening responses from several people. While some of the comments threatened the officer and used “unparliamentary language,” some others circulated images of the officer’s wife, her morphed pictures etc.

The police then booked several people, including Murugan, under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology Act.

While going through the FIR, the court also took note of the posts against the police officer’s wife, which were sexually coloured and reduced women to sexual objects.

“It can be seen that these persons wanted to comment on the police officer and send him a political message. Instead of doing the same, they have taken care to find out who was the wife of the officer and made comments against her, mostly sexually coloured and calling her names, they have taken pains to find her picture and post the same and even some morphed pictures are also posted. This misogynistic depravity and looking at women as sexual objects is the core goondaism prevailing in our society leading to all crimes against women. Therefore, they have to be dealt with sternly,” the judge said, according to Bar and Bench.