Tamil folk singer Kovan arrested for anti-Jayalalithaa song, slapped with sedition charge

Kovan was charged for 124A (Sedition), 153A (Promoting enmity between different social groups and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and 505/1 (Criminal intimidation, insult and annoyance) of IPC.

What happened to S Kovan, a 45-year-old folk singer from Trichy, in the early hours on Friday has similarities with the plot of India’s official Oscar entry film, ‘Court’. While the movie portrays the ordeal in the life of a Dalit activist-poet who challenges the establishment through his songs and is held ‘responsible’ for the suicide of a sewage cleaner by the police, Tamil Nadu Police on Friday imposed sedition charges against Kovan for the songs he had penned against the government and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa criticising her liquor policies.

Official sources said the Cybercrime police had picked up Kovan from his house at Woraiyur near Trichy at 2.30am. He was heading the cultural wing of Makkal Kalai Ilakkiya Kazhagam or People’s Art and Literary Association, a 30-year old movement working for the weaker sections of the society with an active cultural wing that performs folk songs and street plays on socio-economic-cultural issues.

Kovan was reportedly arrested for the lyrics of two songs he had penned in the last few months. ‘Moodu Tasmac Moodu

and ‘Ooruku oru Sarayam