Non-bailable warrant issued against Suriya, Sathyaraj and six other tamil actors

A magistrate court in Ooty on Tuesday issued a non-bailable warrant against eight Tamil film actors including Sathyaraj, Suriya, R Sarathkumar, Arun Vijay, Vivekh, Sri Priya, Sarath Kumar and Cheran, for their absence in court in connection with a defamation case filed by a freelance journalist.

The case dates back to 2009 when the actress Bhuvaneshwari was arrested by the Tamil Nadu police on the charges of prostitution. She had then revealed names of other actors who were involved in the racket.

Following which, many stories based on her statements found their way to the forefront and ended up irking some eminent names of Tamil film industry.The South India Cine Actors' Association (Nadigar Sangam), then, held a meeting to condemn a Tamil daily for publishing an article which allegedly tarnished the image of the actor.

 But according to the complainant, M Rozario, a freelance journalist, the actors who spoke at the meeting attacked all journalists instead of targeting a particular Tamil daily that published the article.

The court subsequently issued summons to the aforementioned eight actors to appear before it in 2011. However, the actors filed a petition seeking to dispense with their appearance but the petition was dismissed.

On May 17, 2017, the next date of hearing, the actors again didn't appear before the court and hence, the magistrate issued non-bailable warrants against them.