As AMMK worker Senthilkumaran was arrested and released on bail on December 26, party general secretary TTV Dhinakaran alleged that he was booked in a false case under the DMK’s “autocratic regime.”
An Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) functionary was arrested in Chennai on Monday, December 26 for posting a meme on Facebook allegedly mocking DMK leader Udhayanidhi Stalin. He was later released on bail, according to his advocate. Senthilkumaran, an AMMK worker from Kadinelvayal village in Vedaranyam, Nagapattinam district had shared the meme on December 16, two days after Udhayanidhi Stalin was sworn in as the state Minister for Youth Welfare and Sports Development. Senthikumaran shared an image from a comedy scene in the 1993 Tamil film Gentleman and wrote that different kinds of new games can now be expected to be introduced in the field of sports.
In the scene referenced in the post, comedian Senthil tells his co-actor Goundamani that he is playing a game called ‘spoonling’ with a woman, where they each hold a spoon in their mouths and try to transfer a lemon from one spoon to the other. While the AMMK worker did not explicitly mention Udhayanidhi Stalin in the post, it was perceived as a mockery of his recent elevation as the state Sports Development Minister.
A police complaint was filed over the post by Gopikrishnan, a worker of the IT Wing of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) from Vedaranyam on December 23 at the Vedaranyam Town police station. In the complaint, Gopikrishnan alleged that Senthilkumaran in his post had “wrongly criticised a people’s representative on social media.” He also claimed that the post was insulting to Chief Minister MK Stalin, and sought Senthilkumaran’s arrest on the grounds of defamation on social media.
Based on the complaint, the Vedaranyam police registered a case under Section 67 of The Information Technology Act, Senthilkumaran’s advocate Nalladurai told TNM. Senthilkumaran was arrested by the Vedaranyam police in Chennai’s Porur on Monday, and later released on bail, he said.
Commenting on the police action against Senthilkumaran, AMMK general secretary TTV Dhinakaran alleged that he was arrested in a false case under the DMK’s “autocratic regime.” “In a democracy, only those who allow freedom of expression can become leaders. People like Minister Udayanidhi should understand this. It is not right to take such retaliatory measures,” Dhinakaran tweeted. AMMK supporters expressed their opposition to the arrest by tweeting with the hashtag ‘Release Senthil’ in Tamil.
ஜனநாயக நாட்டில் கருத்துச் சுதந்திரத்தை அனுமதிப்பவர்கள் மட்டுமே தலைவர்களாக உருவாக முடியும். அமைச்சர் திரு.உதயநிதி போன்றவர்கள் இதனைப் புரிந்துகொள்ள வேண்டும். இத்தகைய பழிவாங்கும் நடவடிக்கைகளை மேற்கொள்வது சரியானது அல்ல. 2/2
— TTV Dhinakaran (@TTVDhinakaran) December 26, 2022
Source: The News Minute