Journalists alleges police misbehaved in court

Some journalists, who went to cover the court proceedings today in connection with artiste Kovan's arrest, alleged that they were stopped from entering the court.
According to journalists present at a city court where the singer was to be presented, a posse of cops had been deployed and they initially stopped the reporters from entering the court.
Woman cops also allegedly manhandled women reporters before journalists gained entry but problems continued as they were still unable to enter the court room with policemen blocking entry.
Later, some advocates argued with the magistrate supporting reporters covering the proceedings, convincing the judge to allow them inside.

The incident was strongly condemned by Chennai Press Club, which took exception to women journalists also not being spared.
"It is condemnable that plain clothesmen had misbehaved with journalists." Joint Secretary of Chennai Press Club, Barathy Tamizhan said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the issue had been taken up with senior police officials.
Kovan, a 54-year-old propagandist singer of ultra Left arts and literary outfit 'Makkal Kalai Ilakkiya Kazhagam', was arrested at Tiruchirapalli on October 30 for alleged sedition, uploading defamatory electronic content against Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and disturbing public peace.
The alleged defamatory content in the form of videos were uploaded in some Tamil websites and it also went viral in messaging mediums like Whatsapp.

The content, though centred over the liquor vending policy of Tamil Nadu government, had direct references to Jayalalithaa in a bad light.