Tamil Nadu lorry driver arrested for inciting communal violence through Tiktok videos

TIRUVANNAMALAI: A 21-year-old lorry driver in Tiruvannamalai district of Tamil Nadu was arrested on Tuesday night on charges of hate speech and attempting to incite communal violence by posting videos on Tiktok. He was remanded at Tiruvannamalai sub-jail on Wednesday morning.
The driver was identified as K Pachaiappan, 21, who belonged to the Yadavar community. He was from Karuganthagal village near Arani taluk in Tiruvannamalai district. He was reportedly an ardent follower of late vanniyar sangam leader Kaduvetti Guru.
A senior police official said, on Monday Pachaiappan posted six videos on Tiktok to observe the second death anniversary of Kaduvetti Guru. The videos intended to incite communal violence as it gave death threat to other community people and leaders. In one of his videos he said he would behead other community people if they were against the ideologies of Kaduvetti Guru.
The videos by Pachaiappan were shared on other social media platforms, including Facebook and Whatsapp.
Based on a complaint lodged by Srinivasan, VAO of Aagaram village in Arani Taluk, the police registered a case and arrested Pachaiappan. He was booked under several sections of IPCs and Information Technology Act.
Inspector of Arani Taluk Police station Jayaprakash said, “The accused was arrested under section 153a (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc, and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 505 (ii) (Statements conducing to public mischief) of IPCs and section 67 of Information Technology Act. We have recorded a video of Pachiappan apologising for his act and shared it on tiktok before remanding him at Tiruvannamalai sub-jail.”