Chennai, Oct 29 The Tamil Nadu police detained an Assistant Professor at MIDS, allegedly over an abusive Instagram comment targeting TVK MLA J Kamatchi, but later released him after confirming that his photograph had been misused to create a fake account.
The police action, however, drew criticism from DMK president M K Stalin, who on Thursday termed the detention of A Kalaiyarasan in an early morning operation as “peak of fascism”.
Strongly condemning the TVK government over the early morning action, the DMK chief alleged that the renowned economist and co-author of the book titled ‘The Dravidian Model’ was targeted for exposing unprecedented price hikes under the current administration.
The Madras Institute of Development Studies Assistant Professor was picked up from his residence here by the Tamil Nadu police early on Wednesday morning, allegedly over an abusive Instagram comment targeting the Pallavaram TVK legislator.
However, he returned home three hours later after the police confirmed that his photograph had been misused to create a fake account.
In a strongly worded statement, the DMK chief expressed deep shock over the plainclothes police officers picking up Kalaiyarasan from his residence at dawn, bundling him into a hired vehicle, and stripping him of his basic rights and mobile phone without proper procedure.
The former CM pointed out that Kalaiyarasan is a highly respected academic who holds a PhD in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and is a co-author of the internationally acclaimed book, The Dravidian Model, published by Cambridge University Press.
The professor’s credentials as a former member of the Union Planning Commission’s team, a contributor to the Tamil Nadu economic survey, and a current member of the Tamil Nadu Climate Change Governing Council were well known.
Stalin rejected the police claims of an accidental identification error, stating, “It is impossible to believe that they arrested him without knowing his identity. Intimidating educators while letting actual criminals walk free is a massive disgrace”.
Accusing the TVK government of “mimicking” the BJP’s methods, Stalin said in a post on X that “they are proving to be worse than the BJP when it comes to fascism. Does this high-handedness take place with the Chief Minister’s approval and the permission of top officials?”
He noted that Kalaiyarasan did not belong to any political party and had freely criticised the previous administration as well.
Stalin demanded an unconditional apology from the police and Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay for the “harassment and false allegations” levied against the economist.
While condemning the “police harassment of Professor Kalaiyarasan”, CPI (M) state secretary P Shanmugam urged the state government to initiate a proper inquiry into this matter and reveal details on who created that specific social media account, who posted the content, who filed the complaint, why the police proceeded in a manner that caused mental agony, violating proper inquiry procedures and who directed the police to act thus.
“The manner, reason, and timing of detaining such an individual, along with the behaviour of the police, indicated that this action was carried out solely with the intent to threaten and intimidate him over an Instagram post. Therefore, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) urges the Tamil Nadu government to initiate a proper inquiry into this matter,” he said in a statement.
In his complaint to the Director General of Police, Kalaiyarasan said the police snatched his mobile phone, stating that they had come to take him to T4 Sankar Nagar Police Station, Pammal, for an inquiry regarding a social media post without furnishing document authorising inquiry or a copy of the FIR.
“They just alleged that I had posted an abusive comment against Pallavaram TVK MLA J Kamatchi from an Instagram account which I have no idea of. I do not know that MLA nor her social media accounts either. In fact, I had never heard of her. l tried to clarify that I didn’t even have an Instagram account. However, without listening to me, they took me out in a rented car parked outside my house and drove away,” he said.
The police did not give him an opportunity to inform his family. “After repeated requests, they allowed me to use the phone for a couple of minutes, during which I informed my friends about what was happening,” he said.
“At Pallavaram, they parked for around 45 minutes and subsequently informed me that they had received orders to drop me back home. While returning, they showed me a screenshot of an abusive comment posted from an Instagram account. The account has my photograph as its profile picture but had a different username, @youvijayamani, which I had no knowledge of,” he said.
The culprit appeared to have taken his photograph from the website of Harvard University, where he was a research affiliate. He was asked to state in writing that he had no connection with the Instagram account and thereafter was dropped at his apartment.
He felt deeply harassed and humiliated by the episode, though he was a victim in the case.
Kalaiyarasan requested the DGP to initiate appropriate action against those responsible for this unlawful detention, creating a fake ID, posting derogatory comments, and maligning his reputation in the public sphere.
(PTI News)
