UDHAGAMANDALAM: A judicial magistrate court in Ooty on Tuesday issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against eight Tamil film actors, including Suriya, Sathyaraj, R Sarathkumar and Sripriya, for their failure to appear before it in connection with a defamation case filed by a freelance journalist.

On October 7, 2009, the South India Cine Actors’ Association (Nadigar Sangam) held a meeting in Chennai to condemn a Tamil daily for publishing an article which allegedly tarnished the image of actresses.

The complainant, M Rozario, a freelance journalist in Ooty, said the actors who spoke in the meeting attacked all journalists instead of targeting a particular Tamil daily that published the article.

Subsequently, the court ordered to issue summons to about eight actors — Suriya, Sathyaraj, Sarathkumar, Sripriya, Vijayakumar, Arun Vijay, Vivek, and Cheran — to appear before the court on December 19, 2011. However, the actors filed a petition in the Madras high court seeking to dispense with their personal appearance in the court. However, the petition was dismissed.

On May 15, 2017, the case came for hearing again. After learning that the actors had not appeared before the court, judicial magistrate Senthikumar Rajavel issued non-bailable warrant against the eight actors on Tuesday.