TN BJP secretary arrested, Annamalai slams ruling DMK
Suryah was arrested under sections of IPC and the IT Act, police said.
MADURAI: Tamil Nadu BJP leader SG Suryah was arrested by the police from Chennai late on Friday, with the party’s state unit chief K Annamalai slamming the move as an attempt to “curtail free speech.”
Police sources said the action was based on a CPM complaint against a social media post of the BJP state secretary.
Suryah was arrested under sections of IPC and the IT Act, police said.
“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 unbecoming of a democratically elected leader and, indeed, are signs of an autocratic leader in the making,” Annamalai tweeted.
“These arrests will not deter us & we will continue to be bearers of the uncomfortable truth!” he added.
Meanwhile, reacting to the arrest, BJP national spokesperson Tom Vaddakan told a press conference at the party headquarters here, “I call it a vendetta arrest. The Chief Minister has said in a statement after the arrest of Senthilbalaji that he will take revenge.”
On Senthilbalaji’s arrest, the BJP spokesperson said, “This is not the case that we brought about. It was a case in which Chief Minister Stalin himself wanted Balaji to be arrested for corruption when he was in the opposition.”
With Suryah’s arrest, a message has been sent out that “if you raise any issue, then Stalin will strike,” he charged.