Arrests – Journalists

An online portal’s founder was arrested by the police in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore for allegedly publishing content which was “baseless and provocative” in connection with the novel coronavirus crisis. Andrew Sam Raja Pandian, the founder of a portal called SimpliCity, was taken into custody by RS Puram police for allegedly publishing content which criticised the government and the shortcomings faced by its healthcare professionals. The articles also alleged corruption by a few employees of a public distribution system (PDS) outlet.

Besides the founder, a journalist and a photographer of the portal were all also taken in custody for questioning and were let off later. However, the founder — Andrew — was arrested under Sections 188, 505 (i) of the IPC and Section 3 of the Epidemic Diseases Act. The police made the arrest based on the complaint, against Andrew and his portal SimpliCity, filed by M Sundararajan, Assistant Commissioner (Personal). The FIR filed by the officer said that the portal was involved in spreading false information regarding the way the government healthcare department and the PDS employees were operating.