A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) functionary was booked by the Tamil Nadu police on Thursday, January 9, for allegedly threatening a couple selling beef at Udayampalayam in Coimbatore. According to the Thudiyalur police, the couple, who sold beef biriyani and beef chilli, were approached by local BJP functionary Subramani on December 25, 2024, and asked to stop selling beef.
Abitha and her husband Ravi, who reside in Ambedkar Colony at Udayampalayam, recently opened a pushcart eatery near SS Kulam middle school, an area where several stalls sell non-vegetarian food. According to the police, Subramani, who is the BJP’s Other Backward Class (OBC) district wing secretary, had approached the couple and demanded that they cease selling beef there because a temple is located nearby. However, Abitha refused to move her shop, pointing out that many nearby shops were selling fish and chicken dishes.
A video of the incident shows Subramani stating that the decision to ‘prevent beef sale’ was taken by the entire village, and that CPI(M) councillor V Ramamoorthy was also aware of it.
Reacting to the incident, BJP state president K Annamalai said that only a portion of the incident was shared on social media. “The functionary had actually said that no non-vegetarian food should be sold near the temple in the area. But only a portion of the incident was uploaded to social media with the intent to create tension between two communities,” he said.
Based on a complaint from Abitha, the Thudiyalur police registered a case against Subramani and three other BJP functionaries under Sections 126 (2) (wrongful restraint), 192 (wantonly causing provocation with intent to cause riot), 196 (promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language etc), and 351 (criminal intimidation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
Around 200 people from the village blocked the road leading to Maniyakarampalayam in protest against the police action. The protesters claimed that the eatery was located too close to a school and a temple.
As the issue grew into a major controversy, with many people raising questions on food rights and religious beliefs, the village committee allegedly evicted seven roadside eateries, including the pushcart of the couple, purportedly acting on orders from village head Selvam.