Non-bailable arrest warrant issued against Suriya and 7 other Tamil actors

The magistrate court in Ooty has issued an arrest warrant against Tamil actors Suriya, Sathyaraj, Vijay Kumar, Arun Vijay, Vivekh, Sri Priya, Sarath Kumar and Cheran, for their absence in court in connection with a defamation case filed by a freelance journalist.

The issue dates back to 2009 when Tamil actress Bhuvaneshawari was arrested on prostitution charges. Upon her arrest, she had revealed names of other actors who were involved in the racket. Several reports were written based on Bhuvaneshwari’s statement and it had annoyed some members of the Tamil film industry.

Popular Tamil daily Dinamalar reported about a story on some actresses saying they are involved in prostitution along with their pictures. This created an uproar in the Tamil film fraternity and the entire film artistes association came together in protest.

They organised a meeting to condemn Dinamalar. The then DMK government arrested the editor of the daily. The South India Cine Actors’ Association then, held a meeting to condemn the daily for publishing an article which allegedly tarnished the image of the actor.

The complainant Rozario Mariya Susai, who is a freelance journalist alleged that the above mentioned actors insulted all the journalists present instead of targeting the particular Tamil daily that published the article.

Following upsetting remarks made by these actors, he filed a private complaint against the eight actors for defamation. The court subsequently issued summons to the aforementioned eight actors to appear before it in 2011.

However, the actors filed a petition seeking to dispense with their appearance but the petition was dismissed. The next hearing was on May 17, this year. The actors again didn’t appear before the court.

Since this was the second occasion on which the actors had failed to appear before the case, a warrant was issued against them. The next hearing is on June 17.