Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, March 5: A day after Bharatiya Janata Party chief K Annamalai held the ruling DMK party responsible for the ongoing stir over alleged attacks on migrant labourers in the state, the Tamil Nadu police have booked him on charges of inciting violence and promoting enmity between groups.
The head of the BJP state unit has been charged by the Cyber Crime Division for, among other things, instigating violence and fostering animosity between groups.
According to officials, a case has also been opened over the incident against the owner of the BJP Bihar Twitter account. In a statement she issued yesterday regarding the problem of migrant workers, Annamalai claimed that although they are secure in Tamil Nadu, the Chief Minister Stalin-led Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the leaders of its allied parties are to blame for the animosity directed at them.
“It is disheartening to see fake news spread in social media about attacks on Migrant workers in Tamil Nadu. We, the Tamil people, believe in the concept of “The World is One” and do not endorse the separatism and vile hatred against our North Indian friends,” Annamalai said in a series of tweets.
Replying to this, the state government, he said, “DMK’s MPs’ vile comments on North Indians, DMK minister calling them Panipuri Wala, and their alliance partners demanding their exodus has triggered what we see today.”
He added that the government, police, and people do not share the DMK’s and their alliance partners’ viewpoints.
In addition to Annamalai, the Tamil Nadu police have also detained four others, including two journalists and BJP spokesperson Prashant Umrao.
Mohammad Tanvir, the owner of the Twitter account “Tanvir Post,” an editor with Dainik Bhaskar, Prashant Umrao, a Patna-based journalist, and Shubam Shukla were all arrested and charged with spreading “fake” information about attacks on migrant workers in Tamil Nadu.
Following the spread of many allegedly violent films depicting attacks on migrant workers on social media, there was a widespread concern among migrant workers in Tamil Nadu. The fear started when Nitish Kumar, the chief minister of Bihar, expressed his concerns and took note of the alleged footage of “attacks” on Thursday.
When many workers chose to skip work, the panic had a severe negative impact on Tamil Nadu’s migrant worker-dependent industry.
Taking cognizance of the alarm, Tamil Nadu’s Director General of Police Sylendra Babu published a statement, saying that the video doing rounds of social media was “fake” and “mischievous”.
