A senior police official in Coimbatore has denied reports that workers of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) have been booked on charges of allegedly circulating the video of an aged woman, who refused a free ticket during a bus journey and insisted that the conductor take money from her, on social media.
A copy of the Daily Situation Report (DSR) from Madukkarai police station circulating on social media showed that four workers of AIADMK, the main Opposition party in Tamil Nadu, have been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code.
This case is linked with a video, which went viral, showing 68-year-old woman Thulasiammal refusing to take a free bus ticket and insisting that the conductor get the money from her.
On October 01, alleged a DSR (Daily Situation Report) copy from Madukkarai police station of Coimbatore showed 4 All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) members booked under different sections of IPC, for posting a staged video on free bus ticket scheme in various social media platforms.
However, Badri Narayanan, Coimbatore Superintendent of Police, while addressing a press meet said no cases have been registered against Thulasiammal or any other over the free bus ticket video. He said it is fake news and also said he will inquire how the false information is being spread.
This incident happened when Thulasiammal, a Coimbatore native, was on her way to Palathurai from Madukkarai on September 29. Free travel for women in state-run buses, in corporation limits, in Tamil Nadu was a poll promise of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) made ahead of the 2021 Assembly elections.
The video of the woman went viral after a recent remark by Tamil Nadu’s Higher Education minister, which became controversial. While speaking at a function the minister asked the women participants how they were commuting these days. "How are you all travelling, now? Tell me... on the “OC buses," he quipped. OC is a colloquial slang that refers to freeloading.
Chief Minister MK Stalin has said that free bus travel for women was not a freebie but an economic revolution, Ponmudy's speech angered many beneficiaries of the scheme.
As per the purported DSR document, Thulasiammal and other three AIADMK members - Prithviraj (40, Mathivanan (33), Vijayanand - have been booked under four different IPC sections for uploading an allegedly staged video on social media handles. They sections under which they have been charged are IPC 294(b) (sings, recites, or utters any obscene song, ballad, or words, in or near any public place), IPC 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), IPC 505(i)(b) (act induces or is likely to induce any person to commit an offence against State or against public tranquillity), and IPC 505(2).