Madras High Court Sets Aside BJP Leader H Raja's Six-Month Jail Sentence in Two Cases

The Madras High Court on Tuesday allowed two criminal appeals filed by Bharatiya Janata Party leader H. Raja and set aside his conviction and six-month simple imprisonment sentence imposed by a trial court in 2024 in two criminal cases.

Justice V. Lakshminarayanan ruled in favour of the appellant, concurring with the arguments presented by senior counsel N. Ananthapadmanabhan and S. Ravi. The judge held that the conviction and sentences handed down by a special court for MP/MLA cases in Chennai on December 2, 2024, could not be sustained.

One of the cases registered against Mr. Raja pertained to a tweet posted on his X handle on April 18, 2018, which contained offensive remarks with a veiled reference to former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and his daughter Kanimozhi. The second case concerned a post on March 6, 2018, calling for the demolition of rationalist leader Periyar E.V. Ramasamy's statues.

Delivering identical orders in both appeals, Justice Lakshminarayanan pointed out that the police had failed to provide an explanation for the delay of several months in registering the First Information Reports. While complaints were submitted in March and April 2018, the FIRs were registered only in September 2018.

The court observed that the unexplained delay raised strong suspicion that the complaints could have been manipulated or fabricated to falsely implicate the accused, noting that delays grant time for consultation and the introduction of concocted narratives.

The judge also highlighted that the appellant had denied posting the offensive tweets. The court noted that a tweet qualifies as an electronic document under Section 2(1)(t) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and must be proved under Section 65B of the Indian Evidence Act, which the prosecution failed to do.

Additionally, the court noted that investigators did not seize any electronic gadgets during the probe to substantiate the allegations. The judge concluded that the existence of the tweets, their attribution to Mr. Raja, and the alleged consequences were not proven in accordance with the law.