Student charged over anti-BJP slogans on flight gets bail

Tutiorin (TN): A court here granted bail to a 28-year-old woman student Tuesday, a day after she was arrested for shouting anti-BJP slogans in front of the party’s state unit chief Tamilisai Soundararajan on board a domestic flight.

Soon after the BJP leader and the student, identified as Sophia, arrived at the airport’s arrival lounge here from Chennai yesterday, an argument ensued between them, which was caught on a camera.

Tamilisai is heard telling the student and the people who gathered at the lounge that a plane was no place to raise slogans.

“It (inside of a flight) is not a public forum….how can you expect me to keep mum when she shouts ‘down with BJP’s fascist government’ looking at me? Is it freedom of expression?” she asked. The woman is a student at a Canadian university and is on a visit to her native district here.

A case was registered against her based on a complaint from Soundararajan, following which Sophia was produced before the Third Judicial Magistrate Court here yesterday.

Police said cases were registered under Sections 505(1)(b) (intent to cause fear or alarm) and 290 (public nuisance) of the IPC and section 75(1)(c) of the Tamil Nadu City Police Act.

While being taken to the prison last night, Sophia complained of uneasiness and was admitted to a hospital, police said, adding she was still in the facility. The student would be released once the surety is furnished in the court, a top police official told PTI.

The BJP leader had said she lodged a complaint with the police and they should probe if some outfit was behind the student’s action. Meanwhile, Sophia’s father had lodged a counter-complaint against Soundararajan and her followers.

“We will be questioning the passengers and the crew as well, since the incident happened on board the flight,” the police official said.