After Madurai police arrested Tamil Nadu BJP state secretary SG Suryah for a tweet wherein he slammed a CPI(M) MP, Su Venkatesan, on a social issue, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar criticised the move and stated: "This is the violation of fundamental rights," news agency ANI reported.
Speaking on the arrest, Union Minister of State for Electronics & Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar stated: "It is wrong, it is an overreach of law that someone has been put up in jail just for a tweet... The party (BJP) will strongly support Surya, and we will fight for his liberty."
In the tweet, Suryah had accused a Communist Party of India (Marxist) councillor called Viswanathan of forcing a hygiene worker to clear a feces-filled sewer, resulting in the worker's death due to allergies. He tweeted: "Sanitation worker's life lost by communist councillor. Madurai MP S.Venkatesan who keeps fake silence! Your fake politics of separatism stinks worse than that cesspool. Find a way to live as a human being, mate!"
Tamil Nadu BJP state secretary SG Suryah was remanded to judicial custody for 15 days in connection with his recent tweet on Madurai MP Su Venkatesan. Suryah was detained under sections 153(a), 505(1)(b), 505(1)(c) of the IPC, and 66(d) of the IT Act.
In response to Suryah's tweets, the CPI(M) stated that there is no Pennadam town panchayat in Madurai, nor is there a councillor called Viswanathan, as Suryah claimed. They said that the statement was entirely fake.
In response to the arrest, BJP state president K Annamalai criticised it on Twitter. "The arrest of Tamil Nadu BJP State Secretary Mr. SG Suryah overnight is highly condemnable. His only mistake was to expose the nasty double standards of the communists, allies of DMK. Using state machinery to curtail free speech and getting jittery about the slightest criticism is unbecoming of a democratically elected leader and, indeed, are signs of an autocratic leader in the making. Drawing inspiration from autocrats, TN CM Thiru MK Stalin is turning the state into a lawless jungle," he tweeted.