Tamil Nadu BJP president K.Annamalai came out in support of YouTubers and social media influencers arrested by the DMK government. He warned that cases under CrPC sections can be filed anywhere in India and the DMK government should remember that. The DMK government had arrested Maridhas, a famous YouTuber and some other influential social media handles for being critical of their governance.
Maridhas was arrested in the middle of the night from his residence in Madurai amidst protests by BJP cadres against it. TN police reportedly arrested him under the IT Act for tweeting about the recent chopper crash in Coonoor that took the life of CDS Bipin Rawat, his wife and 11 others. Maridhas tweeted “Is TN turning into another Kashmir under DMK rule? If there is freedom to put together a group that dares to commit treason against the country, then there is a possibility of sabotage. Secessionist forces must be dealt with a firm hand”.
DMK MP Dr.Senthil Kumar had targeted Kalyanaraman, a BJP functionary in the name of making social media a safe space. He was booked under IT Act with the Goondas Act as well slapped on him . Another social media influencer and political observer Kishore K Swamy was also arrested with the Goondas Act slapped on him even though he was booked under the IT Act. Similarly many social media influencers who were critical of the DMK government were arrested and are still languishing in jail.
Coming out to support them, Tamil Nadu BJP president K.Annamalai (ex-IPS), said that cases can be filed under CrPC sections from anywhere in Bharat and BJP is in power in 17 states. Addressing the media after paying respects to Bharathiar on his birth anniversary in TN BJP headquarters, “Kindly check whether the Goondas Act is used for cases filed under the IT Act. “Cyber Goondas” has it been used anywhere in India? Show me a state where someone was arrested under the Goondas Act for a Twitter post”, he said.
Talking about TN police he took a dig at the DGP Sailendra Babu saying the police force is not in his control and it is DMK IT cell members who are running the department. He accused the officer of merely going on bicycle rides, taking selfies and being satisfied with that. “You have to understand. There is a limit. CrPC applies to the whole of India, not TN alone. If someone posts something in Tamil here, police of other states can file FIR and make arrests. There are provisions for that in CrPC”, he said.
Saying that “there is a limit to patience”, Annamalai warned that any Tamil who can read Tamil can file cases against posts written in Tamil anywhere in Bharat. He further said that “DMK and TN police should understand this fact” as BJP will stand with those who are arrested for mere social media posts. Making it clear that he was not mincing words he said, “BJP is in power in 17 states. There is a limit to our patience. I’m not saying this just for the sake of it. So not make a patient BJP cross that line. I’m issuing this as a warning to the DMK government”.
It comes as a breath of fresh air in the midst of DMK government’s witch hunt of its critics. DMK has been arresting people left, right and center to suppress information of its misgovernance coming out. Maridhas was one of the prominent voices proving DMK’s anti-Bharat, anti-Hindu and anti-development politics with proof. Earlier he had exposed how most of the Tamil media houses are dominated and controlled by Dravidianists. Through his campaign, ex-News 18 Tamil editor Gunasekaran, son-in-law of a prominent Dravidian leader was dismissed from the channel.
Since then DK and DMK supporters have been baying for his blood and finally got what they wanted after DMK came to power. Unfortunately for them, the case against Maridhas for the tweet about the chopper crash has been quashed by the court as the court found the sections under which he was booked as invalid. However he is still in judicial custody in another case filed by DMK IT cell members.
