H. Raja
| Photo Credit: FILE PHOTO

The Madras High Court on Monday dismissed a petition filed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader H. Raja to quash a criminal case booked against him for having tweeted a derogatory remark against Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam deputy general secretary Kanimozhi Karunanidhi in 2018.

Justice G. Jayachandran refused to entertain the quash petition after finding that the accused had filed a similar petition in 2022 and it was dismissed by the High Court in August 2023, with a direction to the special court for MP/MLA cases in Chennai, to complete the trial within three months.

Though some new grounds had been raised in the present quash petition, the judge said, they were issues to be canvassed during the course of trial and not for the purpose of quashing the entire case. He refrained from making further observations since they might affect the accused in the trial.

The Erode Town police station had registered the criminal case against the petitioner under Sections 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code.

The case had been registered following a complaint lodged by DMK’s social welfare committee secretary Selvaraj.