The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday quashed the proceedings pending before Judicial Magistrate III in Thoothukudi against Canada-based Tamil student Lois Sophia, who had allegedly raised slogans against BJP in 2018 on board a flight on which then State BJP president Tamilisai Soundarajan had also travelled.
Justice P. Dhanabal observed it did not constitute an offence and the matter was trivial in nature. The court quashed the proceedings pending before the Judicial Magistrate III in Thoothukudi. The court was hearing the petition filed in 2019 by Lois Sophia who had sought the quash of the proceedings against her.
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In 2018, Ms. Sophia was arrested for allegedly raising slogans against BJP on a Chennai Thoothukudi flight in which the then Tamil Nadu BJP president Tamilisai Soundararajan (now Governor of Telangana and Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry) was a co-passenger. Later, the two were involved in an argument over the issue at the Thoothukudi airport.
It was said that Ms. Sophia had called the BJP government ‘fascist.’ A case was registered against her under various Sections of the IPC by Pudukkottai police in Thoothukudi district. She was remanded in judicial custody and later came out on bail.
Quashing the proceedings against her, the court observed that procedure under Section 155 of the CrPC (Information as to non-cognisable cases and investigation of such cases) was not followed and the police had inserted Section 505 (1)(B) of the IPC in the FIR. The court observed that the provisions of Tamil Nadu City Police Act would not be applicable.
