Coimbatore: The founder of an English news portal has been arrested here on charges of carrying ‘false’ and ‘provocative’ reports against the local administration and government over COVID-19 relief works, police said Friday.
Andrew Sam Rajapandian, who runs ‘Simplicity’ portal, was arrested Thursday on a complaint from a city corporation official. He was produced before a magistrate who remanded him to judicial custody, the police said.
Coimbatore CPI(M) MP PR Natarajan condemned the arrest of Pandiarajan. Journalists associations of Coimbatore and Tirupur were among those who condemned the arrest. They said it was against the freedom of the press.
Police said a cases was registered against the portal Wednesday under Indian Penal Code Sections 189 (Threat of injury to public servant) 505 (i) (statements conducing to public mischief) and Sec 3 of the Epidemic Diseases Act.
Earlier, a journalist and a photographer of the portal were questioned for over four hours in connection with the case, police said.
According to the FIR, the portal had carried reports that government healthcare professionals and workers involved in the fight against coronavirus were not given proper food and employees under Public Distribution System (PDS) were siphoning off the relief fund meant for the poor.
The portal was posting these ‘totally false’ reports in various social media, including Twitter, WhatsApp and Facebook, against the government which is ‘struggling to fight’ the coronavirus spread, said a government statement.
These reports were ‘provocative’ and could have turned the workers against the government and upset the entire PDS activities, it added.
PTI