All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) General Secretary and former Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) on Saturday, June 17, condemned the arrest of the party’s IT cell district functionary from Erode on charges of spreading false and defamatory information against Chief Minister MK Stalin on social media. AIADMK Erode district IT cell functionary, Gowtham (24), was arrested on the night of Friday, June 16, after the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) filed a complaint with the police that the AIADMK functionary was defaming the Chief Minister.
EPS said, "If this trend of filing false cases against members of the AIADMK, especially office bearers of IT wing, continues without any substance and based on what the Chief Minister and his colleagues have said, we will have to take legal action against the police officials concerned."
Police said Gowthan had received a video that portrayed false information about CM Stalin on June 15, which he then edited to include his name and made other changes before forwarding it to others, The Hindu reported. Gowtham was reportedly booked under sections 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation), and 505(2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes) of the Indian Penal Code and section 66A (sending of offensive messages through a computer or other communication devices) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
The former Chief Minister also called upon Stalin to dismiss V Senthil Balaji from the Cabinet following his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and subsequent judicial custody.
Meanwhile, the Secretary of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Tamil Nadu SG Suryah was also arrested by the Madurai police on June 16. He has been arrested in connection to a social media post against Madurai MP Su Venkatesan he shared on June 7. Suryah was arrested based on a complaint filed by Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] district secretary Ganesan.
SG Suryah, in a letter addressing the CPI(M) MP Su Venkatesan, accused a CPI(M) councilor in Pennadam in Madurai of forcing a man to clean the sewers which allegedly led to his death. Tweeting the letter, he said, “A sanitation worker lost his life because of a communist councilor - Madurai MP Su Venkatesan maintains fake silence! Your fake politics of separatism stinks worse than that cesspool, find a way to live as a human being, comrade!”
(With IANS inputs)