The Madras High Court today said Editor of Tamil bi-weekly 'Nakkheran' Gopal, who had already been granted anticipatory bail in connection with a recent publication of an allegedly defamatory article relating to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, should not be arrested in other cases, arising out of the same alleged offence.
The First Bench comprising the Chief Justice M Y Eqbal and Justice T S Sivagnanam passed the order on a petition by Gopal, who said the city police here had registered a case.
Two more FIRs had been registered for the same publication, he said.
Submitting that for one occurrence there could be only one FIR, one investigation and only one charge sheet, he said that for the single occurrence, hundreds of cases were being registered all over the State in different police stations.
Criminal jurisprudence did not recognise such a police action, he said and claimed it was a travesty of criminal justice delivery system and abuse of the process of law.
He prayed for an interim direction to the authorities to transfer all the FIRs registered against him and those to be registered in future in the State to the Zam Bazaar police station, where the first FIR was lodged, and to club them all together.
After the Advocate General sought time to file a counter, the Bench adjourned the matter by two weeks and made it clear that since Gopal had already obtained anticipatory bail in one case, he should not be arrested in other cases arising out of the same offense.