Krishna Kumar Murugan, a political researcher who is known for tweeting data points countering DMK, was arrested on Wednesday (21 September 2022) in the case of alleged ‘defamatory’ posters caricaturing Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin.
Tamil magazine Junior Vikatan, in its issue dated 7 September 2022 had featured a caricatural image of BJP Tamil Nadu President K. Annamalai hanging from a deflated balloon with the caption “Annamalai busssss”.
The alleged investigative article had made critical remarks about the BJP Tamil Nadu head.
In an attempt to counter this, posters were stuck at different places across Chennai on 11 September 2022, which had a similar caricature with Annamalai’s face and name replaced with that of MK Stalin’s.
This poster had enraged DMK cadres with the DMK’s Harbour East Secretary registering a police complaint.
Apparently, there are restrictions to paste posters in areas under the Greater Chennai Corporation. Rajkumar, Assistant Engineer of Chennai Corporation Zone Five, had reportedly lodged a complaint with the police in regard to the poster. The police registered a case and launched an investigation.
According to reports, the police, who investigated the matter, arrested three people, Philipraj from Washermanpet, Hindu Jananayaga Munnani Chennai Secretary Satyanathan and Sivagrunathan.
The investigation revealed that Sivagrunathan had printed 5,000 posters in Sivakasi and sent them to Satyanathan and Philipraj in Chennai. Sivagurunathan, Satynathan and Philipraj reportedly have various cases against them. Reportedly, these posters were pasted on the instructions of Krishna Kumar Murugan.
Contrary to media reports claiming that Krishna Kumar went into hiding, he was picked up by the police during the day when he was at his office in Adyar.
Krishna Kumar is currently lodged at the Central Jail in Puzhal.
This is not the first time that the DMK government has cracked down on its critics.
Recently, YouTuber Karthik Gopinath was arrested over the issue of raising money for temples at Siruvachur in Perambalur district.
However, the DMK government received a knock on the head from the Madras High Court which quashed the FIRs registered against the YouTuber.
Prior to that Kishore K Swamy, another vocal critic of the DMK was slapped with Goondas Act and was incarcerated for 6 months.
Very recently, the Tamil Nadu Police had filed FIRs against the editors of Tamil magazine Vikatan, Maridhas and political commentator ‘Savukku’ Shankar for speaking about G Square, a real-estate firm with alleged ties to the DMK family.
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