Tamil Nadu police books Annamalai for 'disinformation' on death of a woman

Chennai: Tamil Nadu police has booked state BJP chief K Annamalai for allegedly posting "disinformation" on a social media platform that a 45-year-old woman from Pakkirimaniyam village in Cuddalore district was beaten to death by DMK men for voting against the ruling party during phase 1 of the Lok Sabha elections on April 19.

Cuddalore District police on Monday night booked Annamalai under sections 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot), and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The case against Annamalai was booked hours after the police registered a separate case against three others for spreading "false information" on social media.

Annamalai had on April 21 posted on X (formerly Twitter) that Gomathi, the 45-year-old woman, was beaten to death by a group of DMK men after she didn’t vote in favour of the ruling party in the Lok Sabha polls. He had also alleged that the police didn’t act against the DMK men for "killing" Gomathi and asked Chief Minister M K Stalin to first protect the people of Tamil Nadu from his party cadres.

However, the Cuddalore district police, in a detailed statement, said there was an argument between two groups at 6 pm in Pakkirimaniyam village after voting ended over a case filed by one side against the other. "In the ensuing argument, Gomathi, who was trying to pacify the two sides, got injured and was rushed to the Public Health Centre in Andimadam, where she was declared brought dead. Of the 10 accused, five were arrested and sent to judicial custody on April 20", the police said.

The statement asserted that the incident was a result of pre-enmity between the two groups and claims of voting in favour of a particular party insinuating the incident were "wrong" and "misleading".

Responding to the case filed against him, Annamalai posted a video of Gomathi’s husband in which he says that the real reason for Gomathi’s killing was her voting for BJP and not due to previous enmity.

"Fascist DMK cannot silence our voices by filing frivolous cases such as these, as many cases, including the ones filed by Chief Minister M K Stalin, have been filed against us for being the voice of the people & for exposing the truth… the day of your (Stalin's) ouster is not far. File as many cases as you want; we won't compromise & budge", Annamalai wrote on X.