TIRUVANNAMALAI: Around 40 members of the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers and Artists Association (TNPWAA) and Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradiction Front were arrested on Sunday for holding a beef-biriyani-fest in the town.
The protest allegedly took an ugly turn when ADSP, Tiruvannamalai, Rengarajan, and a few police personnel manhandled protesters and misbehaved with journalists covering the programme.
After the intervention of a few members of the Tiruvannamalai sub-division police, who were familiar with the journalists, intervened the altercation ended with policemen returning the mobile phone of the reporter.
Later, police arrested the protesters for organising the fest without obtaining prior permission and forcibly bundling them into a police patrol vehicle. They were allegedly detained in a marriage hall till 7.15 pm and later released.