Chennai: Cartoonist G. Bala, arrested for a cartoon that allegedly depicted officials and politicians in poor light, was granted bail by a court in Tirunelveli district on Monday.
Bala was arrested from his residence here on Sunday on a complaint lodged by Tirunelveli district collector Sandeep Nanduri for lampooning him, chief minister E.K. Palaniswamy and a police officer in a cartoon.
In his cartoon, Bala had depicted the image of a burning child on the ground with three caricatures in their loin cloth, named as Tirunelveli district collector, chief minister and Tamil Nadu police watching it.
Recently, Isaki Muthu along with his wife and two children set themselves ablaze in Tirunelveli, around 650 km from here, unable to bear the harassment by a moneylender.
Muthu had earlier petitioned the police and district collector to save his family from the moneylender. Muthu borrowed around Rs 1.40 lakh from a loan shark at high interest rate. Despite paying back Rs 2 lakh, the moneylender was pressing for more money and threatened Muthu too.
The arrest of the cartoonist had sparked of widespread protests.
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