The Supreme Court on Friday questioned the Tamil Nadu government for invoking the National Security Act (NSA) against a Bihar-based YouTuber Manish Kashyap while issuing notice on his petition challenging the validity of his detention under the said Act. Kashyap is currently lodged at Madurai jail in connection with his videos on “fake news” about Bihari migrants being killed in Tamil Nadu.
The bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha said, “Why so much vengeance against this man? You invoke NSA for this?” At the request of Kashyap’s lawyer who alleged harassment of being moved from one place to another in connection with several cases lodged against him over the same social media post, the Court directed the state not to move him out from Madurai jail.
“We direct that the petitioner be not moved from the Central Prison Madurai,” the bench said. The Court further posted the hearing on April 18.
Also Read: ‘Mr Sibal, why NSA for this?’: CJI to Tamil Nadu govt over YouTuber Manish Kashyap’s fake videos
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal appearing for the Tamil Nadu government argued that Kashyap was not being punished for his post alone. Sibal said that the man claiming to be a journalist is a politician who has contested elections. He came to the state to interview people and circulated videos on social media where he has 60 lakh followers.
“They want to benefit in Tamil Nadu by raising this pitch. He was arrested for the interviews he conducted here,” Sibal said.
Kashyap had on April 5 appeared before the Madurai district court that ordered that he be remanded in judicial custody for 15 days, following which he was detained by Tamil Nadu police under the NSA Act and sent to Madurai central prison.
Kashyap had approached the Supreme Court to club all first information reports (FIR) against him and preferred having the cases transferred to Patna where he resides. The Bihar government also appeared before the Court and submitted that the petitioner is a habitual offender who is facing eight criminal cases in the state.
The bench told the two state governments that it was interested to transfer all FIRs to be probed in one place. “The drift of all his posts is the same that Bihar migrants are being killed in Tamil Nadu. We are not going to quash the prosecution. Let all cases be probed by one agency,” the bench noted.
