Tirunelveli: The judicial magistrate court – I in Tirunelveli on Monday granted bail to Chennai-based cartoonist Bala, who was arrested by the district crime branch (DCB) of the Tirunelveli police on Sunday. Judicial magistrate M Ramadass granted him bail after he was produced in the court by the police.
Bala was arrested after he had depicted Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, Tirunelveli district collector Sandeep Nanduri and Tirunelveli commissioner of police Kapil Kumar Sarathkar in an “inappropriate” way in a cartoon on the self-immolation of a four-member family at Tirunelveli collectorate. He was arrested based on a complaint lodged by the Tirunelveli district collector.
Before being produced before the court, Bala said he was upset on seeing two children burning at the Tirunelveli collectorate on October 23. A day after a family of four set themselves on fire, Bala drew a cartoon in which a child is seen on fire while ‘Nellai police commissioner,’ ‘Nellai collector’ and ‘CM’ are depicted as standing nearby with their eyes closed and without wearing anything, except for each of them hiding their private parts with a bundle of notes.