YouTuber Maridhas arrested in TN for controversial tweet on crash of chopper carrying CDS

MADURAI: YouTuber Maridhas was arrested by cyber crime police in Madurai on Thursday over a controversial tweet he had posted on the Coonoor chopper crash in which the Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat and 12 others were killed on Wednesday.

In the tweet, which he later deleted, Maridhas asked if Tamil Nadu was "turning into a Kashmir" under the DMK rule. In the tweet, seeming to insinuate foul play in Wednesday's tragedy, he claimed that there were chances of a conspiracy to be formed when people disloyal to the country were to come together and said separatist forces had to be stopped.

Madurai police went to Maridhas' house in Surya Nagar of K Pudur to question him, but members of the BJP gathered at the spot and refused to allow police to detain him. Eventually, police, with some difficulty, took him to the K Pudur police station, where again BJP cadres staged a protest. Deputy Commissioners TK Rajasekaran and Thangadurai were at the spot to manage the chaos. Maridhas was booked by the cyber crime police under Sections 153 (a), 504, 505 (ii), 505 (i)(b) of the IPC.

Sources said he had also posted a separate tweet alleging that DMK and DK supporters had made fun of Rawat's passing and alleged that DMK was the first choice of separatist forces. Maridhas also posted a controversial video against the state government regarding the death of Manikandan of Ramanathapuram after his release from police custody.

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