CHENNAI: A day after releasing a video levelling sexual harassment charges against BJP general secretary KT Raghavan, YouTuber Madan Ravichandran and his associate Venba were expelled by the party. The BJP also directed partymen not to have any truck with them anymore. The YouTuber had joined the BJP on October 12, 2020 in the presence of senior party leaders at New Delhi.
In another development, the YouTube channel of Madan Ravichandran has been closed and the video he had released on Tuesday is no longer available for viewing. The message "The YouTube account associated with the video has been closed,” appears when viewers tried to view the clip regarding Raghavan.
BJP state general secretary Karu Nagarajan, in a statement here, said Madan Ravichandran and Venba have called on state president K Annamalai and assured him that they would cooperate with the committee formed to enquire into the video levelling sexual harassment charges against Raghavan. However, both of them have been removed from the primary membership of the party since they have expressed views contrary to the ideals of the party in their video.
Releasing the video on Tuesday, Madan Ravichandran claimed that he has video and audio evidence against 15 office bearers of the BJP and that he had released the video related to Raghavan only after getting the consent of Annamalai.
However, Annamalai had contended that despite repeated requests, Madan Ravichandran had declined to hand over the videos to ascertain the veracity of the charges he levelled against Raghavan. Annamalai said the statement of Ravichandran that he had more videos regarding some others had raised suspicions as to whether the YouTuber had an ulterior motive in releasing the video.