Tamil Nadu BJP State Secretary SG Suryah was arrested on the intervening night of 16 and 27 June 2023 for his statement against Madurai Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP Su Venkatesan over the death of a hygiene worker who was allegedly forced to clean a faeces-filled drain by a Communist councillor.
In a scathing letter addressed to Madurai MP Su Venkatesan, BJP Tamil Nadu State Secretary SG Suryah had alleged that a hygiene worker died due to allergies in the body after a Communist party ward member named Viswanathan forced him to clean the drain.
In what seems to be an overlooked trivial error, Suryah in his statement had misattributed the death that happened in Cuddalore to Madurai while condemning the Madurai CPI-M MP’s stoic silence on the matter.
However, for this trivial error, SG Suryah has been slapped with sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 505(1)(b), 505(1)(c) (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 66(D) (punishment for cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology (IT) Act.
Condemning the arrest SG Suryah, BJP Tamil Nadu President K. Annamalai lashed out at the MK Stalin-led DMK government saying that it was turning Tamil Nadu into a lawless state.
The arrest of @BJP4TamilNadu State Secretary Thiru @SuryahSG avl is highly condemnable. His only mistake was to expose the nasty double standards of the communists, allies of DMK.
Using state machinery to curtail free speech & getting jittery for the slightest criticism is…
— K.Annamalai (@annamalai_k) June 17, 2023
Several senior leaders of the BJP including Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Rajeev Chandrasekhar, BJP MP Tejasvi Surya, BJP National General Secretary (Org) BL Santhosh have condemned SG Suryah’s arrest.
@mkstalin Govt has turned intolerant unable to digest the arrest of its minister on various charges. @arivalayam should understand that the we will not take it lying down . We have fought emergency in 1975 tooth & nail and we will fight now. You have picked up a wrong target. 2/2
— B L Santhosh (@blsanthosh) June 17, 2023
@BJP4TamilNadu மாநில செயலாளர் @SuryahSG தனது ஒரு சமூக ஊடக பதிவின் காரணமாக நள்ளிரவில் கைது செய்யபட்டார். அவர் கைது கண்டனத்திற்குறியது.
மலக்குழி மரணங்களின் மீது @CMOTamilnadu தகுந்த நடவடிக்கை எடுக்காமல் அதைப்பற்றி கேள்வி எழுப்பிய @SuryahSG வை தண்டிக்க முயற்ச்சி எடுப்பது நியாயமா?…
— Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) June 17, 2023
Use of police arrest for tweets/posts is REAL & TOTAL overreach n violation of right to due process of law n free speech.
This was the normal tactic to silence by Rahuls Cong during UPA misusing Sec66A – recently its dynast allies too hv done it like @PawarSpeaks n now… https://t.co/rHMwFMnhWP
— Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@Rajeev_GoI) June 17, 2023
Truly a Stalinist Govt in TN!
The @mkstalin Govt in Tamil Nadu is using all possible authoritarian tools to silence opposition & media.
Arrest of BJP TN Secretary @SuryahSG is its latest attempt to muzzle free speech.@BJYM condemns this violation of fundamental rights. pic.twitter.com/m43M2ndXER
— Tejasvi Surya (@Tejasvi_Surya) June 17, 2023
I strongly condemn the arrest of @BJP4TamilNadu State Secretary Thiru @SuryahSG by Tamil Nadu police for raising questions against the incompetent DMK government.
If CM @mkstalin thinks that he can put down the true voice of Tamil Makkal through such arrests, then he should come…
— C T Ravi 🇮🇳 ಸಿ ಟಿ ರವಿ (@CTRavi_BJP) June 17, 2023
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