Kishore K Swamy, a prominent political commentator know for his anti-DMK stance was arrested on the wee hours of Monday (21 November 2022).
A Zee News report mentions that Kishore has been arrested for his posts critical of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin made in light of the monsoon preparations.
According to the report, the Cyber Crime unit of the Chennai Police had registered a case and sent summons to Kishore.
It said that he did not appear despite several notices sent to him on November 5, 7, 9 and 14. Kishore reportedly sought anticipatory bail from the Principal Sessions Court in Chennai fearing arrest.
When the plea came for hearing, Kishore’s side had stated that his Twitter posts were about his ‘friend’ and not anybody else. The public prosecutor had stated that Kishore is a “habitual offender” and has seven cases registered against him.
The judge dismissed Kishore’s anticipator bail plea stating that granting bail to a person who has been summoned but not presented himself would set a wrong precedent.
A few other sources say that he was arrested for his social media posts about the recent bomb blast at Coimbatore.
Two days ago on 19 November 2022, Kishore had alleged that attempts were being made by “journalist gang” led by The News Minute journalist Shabbir Ahmed to get him arrested.
Crime beat journalist gang led by shabir is lobbying and working overtime to somehow get me arrested. Karthigai selvan and gunasekaran are the chief pimps facilitating . But truth will prevail and triumph. Dmk should understand , don't allow brokers to use you as a shield.
— kishore k swamy 🇮🇳 (@sansbarrier) November 19, 2022
This is the second time that Kishore K Swamy has been arrested since the DMK came to power.
Earlier, Kishore K Swamy was arrested on June 14, 2021, for allegedly ‘defaming’ DMK leaders MK Stalin, Karunanidhi and Annadurai. The arrest was made based on a complaint by a Kanchipuram DMK functionary. Kishore K Swamy in his tweet had just quoted parts of a writing by Tamil poet Bharathidasan who had written about Annadurai saying that Annadurai took his niece to a wealthy man’s house to earn money. Kishore K Swamy had also made several posts criticizing MK Stalin and his father M. Karunanidhi.
For this ‘heinous’ crime of criticizing DMK leaders, he was incarcerated and slapped with the Goondas Act languishing in prison for around 6 months.
However, the Madras High Court in December 2021 quashed the Goondas Act against Kishore following which he was released from prison.
Other DMK Critics Arrested By Stalin Government
Krishna Kumar Murugan, a political researcher who is known for tweeting data points countering DMK, was arrested on 21 September 2022 in the case of alleged ‘defamatory’ posters caricaturing Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin.
Karthik Gopinath, a prominent Tamil YouTuber who runs the Ilaya Bharatham YouTube channel, was arrested by the Tamil Nadu police in May 2022 over the issue of raising funds for a temple at Siruvachur that was desecrated by miscreants.
Kalyanaraman of BJP Tamil Nadu was arrested for allegedly derogating Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin and his late father Karunanidhi. Kalyanaraman had in a tweet posted a picture of a page from a book which talks about V. Anaimuthu’s comments on EVR’S wife Maniammai in which Anaimuthu sheds light on the relationship shared by Maniammai and K. Veeramani, the current head of Dravidar Kazhagam. Kalyanaraman too was slapped with the Goondas Act.
Popular Youtuber Maridhas was arrested on December 9, 2021 for a tweet that came in the light of the death of late Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat. This arrest too was made based on a complaint by a DMK functionary.
BJP IT wing office-bearer Saravana Kumar from Dindigul was arrested for allegedly criticizing the DMK government.
Dakshinamurthy alias Seethaiyin Mainthan, a YouTuber and a Tamil nationalist ideologue was arrested on October 15, 2021 for releasing a documentary that exposed the lesser known and hidden facts about E.V. Ramasamy Naicker also known as ‘Periyar’ by his followers.
The Tamil Nadu Police had filed FIRs against the editors of Tamil magazine Vikatan, Maridhas and political commentator ‘Savukku’ Shankar for speaking about G Square, a real-estate firm with alleged ties to the DMK family.
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