Yesterday a research scholar who returned from canada arrested for calling a senior Bharatiya (BJP) Janata Party a fascist in a Tuticorin-Chennai flight was given bail today
S Lois Sophia, 28, allegedly said “down, down, fascist BJP, down, down” when she saw Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan, president of BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit, on the flight.
She allegedly repeated her comments when she saw Tamilisai at Tuticorin airport’s baggage collection point after the flight landed.
After that Tamilisai threaten Sophia in a video shot in the airport. Police officials are seen trying to calm down Tamilisai in the video but BJP leader did not relent
Sophia, who studies in the University of Montreal, Canada, was sent to 15 days of judicial custody after Tamilisai filed a complaint against her with the airport police.
“My daughter did not make any derogatory comments against the BJP leader. She just criticised the party. It is not a personal attack. Earlier police said that they will release her in the night, but they later asked me to get bail from court,” said Sophia’s father Samy, a retried state government doctor in Tuticorin, on Tuesday.
Tamilisai said she felt threatened by Sophia. “While Sophia raised slogans against me in the aircraft, I remained calm. However, even when she repeated the same outside, I felt that I was insecure. I am also having my own rights and privacy, so I lodged a complaint against that girl,” Tamilisai told journalists.
Video clippings show Tamilisai losing her cool, yelling at the girl for having behaved in a “vulgar manner” and refusing to heed to request from police personnel on duty to ignore the comments.
If raising slogans and expressing opinions in a public space is a crime, then all politicians are criminals who need to be arrested,” Kamal Haasan, the actor turned president of the Makkal Needhi Maiam party, said.
The ruling EPS government repeats time and again that they are not puppets in the hands of the central government. But they have acted very swiftly to book this young girl and show their loyalty to their masters” says rebel ADMK leader TTV Dinakaran
DMK president M K Stalin protested Sophia’s arrest. “If the police want to arrest people for criticising BJP, they have to arrest more than a lakh. I too say this: ‘fascist BJP down, down’,” Stalin said in a tweet.
