Swamy vows to aid trader arrested for tweeting about Karti Chidambaram

Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy has jumped to the  defence of businessman Ravi Sreenivasan, who was arrested on Tuesday for his tweets about Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s son Karti. Sreenivasan was subsequently releasd on bail. Sreenivasan told The Daily Pioneer that  after his release, he got a call from  Swamy, who promised him legal aid and help. [caption id=“attachment_511002” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Karthi Chidambaram had reportedly filed the complaint against the businessman. Firstpost[/caption] Swamy was also quoted as saying by the newspaper that Sreenivasan’s case was a strong one and no action should have been taken against him under Section 66 (1) of the IT Act. “Sreenivasan is protected by Article 19 of the Indian Constitution which grants him the right to freedom of speech and expression, of course with reasonable restrictions. He has not violated this section,” Swamy said. Sreenivasan had allegedly posted messages on Twitter stating that Karti Chidambaram had amassed wealth more than that of Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress President Sonia Gandhi. Sreenivasan, the owner of a plastic packaging material factory, was arrested by the local crime branch wing of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) based on a recent complaint filed by Karti Chidambaram. The complaint said that the industrialist had posted “offensive” messages against Karthi on three occasions since last year on Twitter. Sreenivasan was arrested under Section 66 (1) of the Information Technology Act, which ironically pertains to hacking and not to defamation. He was produced before a magistrate by the police who sought 15 days remand for Sreenivasan. However, the court granted bail to Ravi, since the offence was bailable.