Amid the controversy involving Tamil magazine Junior Vikatan and real estate company G Square Realtors, N Kannan IPS, Inspector General of Police and Additional Commissioner of Police, Law and Order, South of the Greater Chennai Police has been transferred as per a government order. Prem Anand Sinha IPS, who currently serves as the Inspector General of Police, North Zone, will now occupy the post of ACP (Law and Order) South.
The controversy broke on May 21 after a complaint was filed on behalf of Ramajayam alias Bala, the founder and director of G Square Realtors Private Ltd. The complaint stated that Bala had received a call from a man named Kevin who claimed to be close to top editors at Junior Vikatan, and demanded Rs 50 lakh from the real estate firm to “stop publishing a story that the magazine had written on G Square”.
The complaint stated that G Square did not pay Kevin the money, following which the story was published on Junior Vikatan on January 23, this year. The article alleged that the real estate firm had ties with the ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu and that various government officials helped them operate their business smoothly. Further, the complainant also states that Kevin, the prime accused, had threatened that he would get social media users who had considerable influence, such as Tamil YouTuber Maridhas and whistleblower Savukku Shankar, to write defamatory stories about the real estate company if the company did not pay the amount demanded. The case was investigated under the leadership of Kannan IPS. On May 22, Kevin was arrested by the Mylapore police and has been remanded to judicial custody.
Meanwhile, Junior Vikatan’s top editors maintain that they have no ties with Kevin. Editor and publisher of the newspaper Kalai Selvan also filed a complaint with the help of the City Police Commissioner seeking action against Kevin and Ramajayam. Kalai Selvan maintained that some people “were trying to silence the magazine, with false complaints.”
The complaint by the newspapers also said that Junior Vikatan said the right of the print media to publish a piece of news about a matter of public concern is recognised as an integral part of freedom of expression under the constitution. Meanwhile, names of the top editors from Junior Vikatan have been dropped from the FIR registered.
Watch TNM’s Shabbir Ahmed speak to Junior Vikatan’s Editor regarding the controversy, who Kevin is, and more: