Cartoonist Bala was arrested by Nellai crime police for drawing Cartoon that could be seen as derogatory and un-patriotic. The drawing shows the Easakkimutu family in an unflattering manner, naked and trying to hide their private areas, while a fire burns before them and a dead child is lying on the floor. The drawing is disturbing, but people have now come in the support of Bala, citing the freedom of speech clause in the constitution, that says people shouldn’t be persecuted for expressing their views. The cartoon seems to target the Tirunelveli district collector Sandeep Nanduri. The cartoon was posted on October 23.
The Cartoon seems to have attracted the ire of the authorities, and has resulted in the arrest of Bala. But it seems that the public is supporting Bala, as their have been close to 40,000 views of the cartoon and the people are now criticing the actions that have been put up by the authorities to detain him.
The Superintendent of police (SP) of Tirunelveli district PVe Arunsakthikumar commented on the arrest in a statement, “Cartoonist G Balakrishnan (36) alias Bala of Kovur, Chennai, was booked under Section 501 (printing or engraving matter known to be defamatory) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 67 (punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act.”
