Two administrators and the member of a WhatsApp group based in Kancheepuram district have been arrested by the police for allegedly posting morphed pictures and videos of state Finance Minister D Jayakumar and a female actor on the messaging platform.
A complaint was registered on July 20 by a resident named Singaravelu, who had received these messages. The arrested were identified as Senthil Kumar (33) his brother Ramesh (39) who were the administrators of the group named ‘Somangalam Nanbargal group’. The brothers own a tea shop in Somangalam. Gunasekaran, 27, the member who allegedly posted the ‘objectionable’ material in the group works at a private firm in SIPCOT.
"They have been booked under Section 67 of the Information Technology Act (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form). The photo was clearly meant to harm the minister's reputation. So, we had to act," says Kancheepuram SP, Santhosh Haidmeni.
Investigating officers at the Somangalam station says the law allows them to arrest the administrators of the group as they failed to remove the photo.
"Only section 66 of IT Act has been struck down by the Supreme Court. It is wrong to circulate obscene images," admits lawyer and human rights activist, Sudha Ramalingam. "But there is no point arresting people when they can come out on bail in such cases anyway," she adds.