On 19 April 2024, it was reported that a woman named Gomathi was beaten to death allegedly by DMK goons in Pakkirimaniyam village, Cuddalore district, Tamil Nadu.
Allegedly, they attacked her because she had voted for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during the voting process in the state.
According to reports, the assailants confronted Gomathi at her home, engaging in a verbal altercation before physically assaulting her. Nakkheeran reported that witnesses claimed the attackers questioned her choice of vote, stating, “Why didn’t you vote for our party?” Sadly, Gomathi succumbed to her injuries at the scene. However, this article has now been deleted by Nakkheeran, which is a pro-DMK propaganda outlet. The same has been archived here.
Several mainstream news outlets, even pro-DMK ones such as Nakkheeran had reported this news. It was published all over the media channels such as Dinamalar and Tamil Hindu.
With such news gaining traction, it spread like wildfire on social media channels as well. Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party president K Annamalai also took cognisance of the alleged incident and posted it on his official X handle of it.
கடலூர் மாவட்டம் ஶ்ரீமுஷ்ணம் அருகே உள்ள பக்கிரிமானியம் கிராமத்தைச் சேர்ந்த திருமதி கோமதி என்பவர், வாக்குப் பதிவு நாளன்று, குடும்பத்தினர் கண்முன்னே திமுகவினரால் அடித்துக் கொலை செய்யப்பட்டுள்ளார் என்ற செய்தி மிகுந்த அதிர்ச்சியளிக்கிறது.
தேர்தலில், தங்கள் கூட்டணிக்கு…
— K.Annamalai (மோடியின் குடும்பம்) (@annamalai_k) April 21, 2024
The video of the alleged news report was shared several times on social media. The Tamil Nadu police later refuted the notion of a political motive behind the incident, asserting instead that the woman’s death stemmed from a dispute between two families. According to a statement issued by the Cuddalore District Police in response to the incident’s reports, the woman tragically passed away after falling while intervening to halt a confrontation between the two families.
Cuddalore Police shared a press release in response to Tamil Hindu’s article on the same news item. The press release stated, “On 19.04.2024 at around 06.00 in the evening, a verbal dispute took place between the two parties in front of a banyan tree in Pakirimaniam village under Srimushnam police station limits. On one side Kalaimani, his wife Deepa, and his relatives Ravi, Pandian, Indumani, Arulchezhian, Dharmaraj, Meghanathan, Raja, Vignesh (all Vanniyars), and on the other side Jayashankar, his elder brother Jayakumar, Jayakumar’s wife Gomati and their sons Satishkumar, and Jayaprakash (all Vanniyars). The argument erupted over Jayasankar’s daughter Jayapriya’s teasing and refusal to accede to Kalaimani’s long-standing plea to withdraw the case against him for assaulting Jayakumar. In this dispute, both parties attacked each other unarmed, when Gomathi (Jayakumar’s wife) intervened and tried to stop the problem, she fell down and got injured. Gomathi was pronounced dead when he was taken to Antimadam PHC for first aid and treatment. In this connection, Srimushnam PS Cr.No. 96/2024 U/s 147, 148, 294 (b), 323, 324, 506(ii), 302 IPC r/w 4 of TN Prohibition of Harassment Act registered on 20.04.2024 at 01.00. Out of the total 10 accused persons, five namely 1. Kalaimani 2. Deepa (wife of Kalaimani) 3. Ravi 4. Meghanathan and 5. Indumani were arrested and remanded to judicial custody on 20.04.2024. were implicated.
In the investigation so far, it has been stated that the above incident was due to an animosity between the two parties and that the attack happened because of voting in favor of a particular party as mentioned in the video, which is completely false. And the video related to this incident is totally fake.”
— Cuddalore District Police (@cudpoliceoffi) April 21, 2024
The Tamil Nadu Police, however, seemed to target only one netizen who had shared the video of the news report about Gomathi’s death. They posted on their social media handle warning the netizen of legal action for sharing “false news”.
Don’t spread false news. Stern legal action follows @MrSinha_ https://t.co/5bTSQLYR03
— Tamil Nadu Police (@tnpoliceoffl) April 21, 2024
The netizen had already deleted the said post and yet TN Police said it would take legal action against him. No such statements were made by TN Police against the news portals that carried this news item in the first place.
We all know that the spineless @tnpoliceoffl is becoming a political arm of the @arivalayam . Now it wants to take legal action ( basically harass) a nationalist @MrSinha_ who has merely quoted from news reports . Will you take action against @polimernews and @dinamalarweb who… https://t.co/5vviC9qTMP
— karthik gopinath(மோடியின் குடும்பம் ) (@karthikgnath) April 21, 2024
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