Tamil Nadu BJP state secretary SG Suryah was arrested by the Madurai district cyber crime police in Chennai late on on Friday (June 16).
While the official reason for arrest is still not clear, party sources confirmed to Swarajya that it was in connection with his recent tweet questioning the silence of Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP Su Venkatesan over a recent death of a sanitation worker in Madurai district.
In a tweet few days back, Suryah alleged that a ward councillor belonging to CPM had instructed a sanitation worker to enter a drain filled with feces, thereby endangering his health and well-being.
Questioning the silence of Venkatesan over the incident, Suryah said "Madurai Pennadam town panchayat 12th ward councillor Viswanathan had forced the worker to undertake the job after which the worker got infected and died. The hypocritical politics of the MP stinks."
“The deceased is a scheduled caste brother! Where’s your red flag! Where is your fighting spirit? Where are your passionate words? If you are against the ruling BJP government, you will come forward immediately. Where have you gone now? Did you sneak out? Why doesn’t your red flag fly against your fellow comrades? Or won’t your red flag take to the streets and fight in support of the Scheduled Caste brothers? Your fake politics draped in red flag stinks worse than the manhole. Find a way to live as a human being, my friend.” Suryah further added.
Earlier this week, the Madurai Urban unit of CPM had filed a police complaint accusing Suryah of maligning the image of Venkatesan on social media, and demanded action against him.
The complaint was filed by CPM’s urban district secretary M Ganesan and party workers to the city commissioner of police Narendran Nayar.
The complaint claimed that there is no Pennadam town panchayat in Madurai district nor is there a councillor by the name Viswanathan from the CPM.
"Suryah is intentionally creating tension among the conservancy workers as well as the public on an incident that did not happen in the city. The BJP functionary is creating tension , the CPM alleged.
BJP state unit president K. Annamalai condemned the arrest of his party functionary.
"The arrest of BJP state secretary SG Surya is highly condemnable. His only mistake was to expose the nasty double standards of the communists, allies of DMK...These arrests will not deter us & we will continue to be bearers of the uncomfortable truth," Annamalai tweeted
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