Foxconn protests: YouTuber held for rumour mongering

Duraimurugan first tweeted that four women employees had succumbed in the hospital and then said nine have died. In a YouTube video, he then accused the government of trying to cover them up as COVID deaths, said police, charging that these social media posts created unrest among the firm’s employees who refused to withdraw the protests at Oragadam despite the clarification given by the Kancheepuram Collector and SP.

As it created ripples in Tiruvallur district as well, the Tiruvallur Taluk police registered a case against Duraimurugan based on a complaint by Poonamallee Tahsildar under Sections 153, 153A, 269, 504, 505 (i)(b), 509, 124A of IPC, read with Section 3 of Epidemic Diseases Act and Section 54 of Disaster Management Act. He was picked up from his house in Tiruchy on Sunday night and remanded in judicial custody till January 3.

Tiruvallur police clarified that two staffers of the canteen where the food was prepared for the employees were arrested and a separate case has been registered against the institution’s chairperson and the principal for letting the college hostel to be used by the private firm to lodge their employees.

On Sunday, MGR Nagar police had arrested activist Valarmathi for her Facebook post regarding the health of female workers of Foxconn. The company employs as many as 16,678 women at its unit in the outskirts of Chennai.