Human rights lawyer M Ravi has been charged by the authorities on Friday for defaming Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam in a Facebook post made on M Ravi’s Facebook profile on 6 November this year.
Earlier in its statement on 7 November, the police said that the Public Prosecutor has issued an order pursuant to Section 16(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code for the Police to investigate into the offence.
The offending material pertains to Mr Ravi’s claims in his 6 Nov Facebook post, which alleged that lawyer Eugene Thuraisingam had told him that Mr Shanmugam had said he “wields influence over the Chief Justice” and “calls the shot and controlls (sic) Sundaresh Menon”.
In its statement, the police added that Mr Thuraisingam wrote a letter to Mr Shanmugam the day before, in which Mr Thuraisingam said that “[t]here is absolutely no truth whatsoever” to Mr Ravi’s allegations”.
Mr Thuraisingam added that Mr Ravi had made similar allegations in a Facebook post on 12 June 2017.
He similarly reportedly clarified with Mr Shanmugam the next day that Mr Ravi’s allegations were false.
Police said in its statement earlier this month that no action was taken in relation to the 2017 incident.
Following police investigations commenced upon Mr Ravi, he shared that was the police who had filed a report on the matter.
Penalty for criminal defamation if found guilty is imprisonment for a term which may extend to 2 years, or with fine, or with both.
