Sources from Chennai have stated that fans of Tamil industry's heartthrob actor Suriya have taken social media by storm with #WeSupportSuriya campaign after a court in Ooty has issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against eight Tamil film actors including the 'Singam' actor. Actors Sarathkumar, Sathyaraj, Cheran, Vijayakumar, Vivek, Arun Vijay and Sripriya have been served with the warrant for failing to appear before the court in connection with a defamation case filed by a senior correspondent for their alleged derogatory speech.
It was stated that the case dates back to 2009 when a Tamil newspaper published a report that alleged that an actress had charged a group of actors and actresses of running prostitution racket. Following strong protest from the film fraternity, the daily had retracted its report and issued an apology.
Previously sources have added that, on October 7, 2009, the Nadigar Sangam
organised a protest where the aforementioned actors allegedly strongly abused
journalists for publishing unverified stories. Offended by the actors' remarks,
a senior correspondent then filed a case against them. As the case came for
trial before the Ooty court, the actors moved the Madras High Court seeking to
quash the case. However, their petition was dismissed by the high court and the
trial resumed.
Meanwhile when the case came up for first hearing on May 15, none of the accused actors appeared before the court in Ooty. As they didn't appear for hearing again on Tuesday, a non-bailable arrest warrant was issued against them. The next hearing in this case is scheduled to June 17.
