NAGAPATTINAM: A series of Facebook posts allegedly made by a 32-year-old man from Nagapattinam, against Chief Minister ‘Edappadi’ K Palaniswami and State Fisheries Minister Jayakumar, has landed him in trouble, as a cyber crime police team from Chennai arrested him in Sirkazhi on Wednesday.
G Sathishkumar runs a cyber cafe in Sirkazhi town. Many Facebook posts allegedly against the Chief Minister and other ministers were allegedly found on his Facebook page. The police said, “Acting on a tip-off on the posts, we have arrested Sathish and brought him to Chennai city for further interrogation.”
The details of the posts were not available at the time of going to Press.
It was also not known whether they were blocked or deleted. Sathish’s father Ganesan is the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) Narayanapuram village panchayat secretary and is a supporter of ‘Edappadi’ K Palaniswami.
Commenting on the arrest, Sathish’s friend who did not want to reveal his identity, said, “We’ve been friends since childhood and he is not somebody who is politically charged up or active. Looks like someone might have hacked his account and misused it out of spite.”
In the line of fire
The Karnataka Assembly in June, 2017, sentenced two editors of tabloids, including noted scribe Ravi Belagere, to one year in jail for breach of privilege over their alleged defamatory articles against State legislators
Political satirist Ravi Kiran arrested in Vishakhapatnam in May, 2017, over a ‘defamatory’ post on Dalit TDP MLA Vangalapudi Anitha on his FB page. The MLA’s complaint said that Ravi’s FB post suggested that the MLA was putting on weight, while Andhra Pradesh’s finances were getting slim
After Shiva Sena leader Bal Thackeray’s death in November, 2012, two women were arrested as one of them posted on Facebook criticising Mumbai shutdown to mark his death and the other liked the post
In September, 2012, Kanpur based cartoonist Aseem Trivedi was arrested for sedition, insulting a national emblem and charges under Section 66a of the IT Act