Non-bailable Arrest Warrant to 8 actors

Chennai May 17: Fans of Tamil star hero Suriya have taken social media by storm with #WeSupportSuriya campaign after a court in Ooty has issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against eight Tamil film actors including the 'Singam' actor.

Sarathkumar, Sathyaraj, Cheran, Vijayakumar, Vivek, Arun Vijay and Sripriya are the other seven film actors to have been served with the warrant for failing to appear before the court in connection with a defamation case filed by a senior correspondent for their alleged derogatory speech.

The case dates back to 2009 when a Tamil newspaper published a report that alleged that an actress had charged a group of actors and actresses of running a prostitution racket. Following strong protest from the film fraternity, the daily had retracted its report and issued an apology.



Later, on October 7, 2009, the Nadigar Sangam organized a protest where the aforementioned actors allegedly strongly abused journalists for publishing unverified stories. Offended by the actors' remarks, a senior correspondent then filed a case against them. As the case came for trial before the Ooty court, the actors moved the Madras High Court seeking to quash the case. However, their petition was dismissed by the high court and the trial resumed.

When the case came up for the first hearing on May 15, none of the accused actors appeared before the court in Ooty. As they didn't appear for hearing again on Tuesday, a non-bailable arrest warrant was issued against them. The next hearing, in this case, is scheduled to June 17.