Yesterday, the Madras High Court quashed criminal defamation proceedings initiated against eight Tamil actors, including Suriya and Sarathkumar which was pending in the trial court in Ooty.
This was for the complaint filed by a senior journalist in Ooty against the eight actors under Section 499 (criminal defamation) of the IPC for allegedly making statements degrading the reputation of a leading Tamil news daily and also a journalist attached to it in 2009, during a meeting of the South Indian Film Artistes Association.
Earlier on, a non-bailable warrant was issued against Suriya, Sarathkumar, Sathyaraj, Vivekh, Arun Vijay, Sri Priya, Cheran and Vijay Kumar. The actors approached the High Court and obtained an interim stay against the operation of the warrant. Finally, the case against these actors was quashed yesterday.
