Coimbatore, Apr 24 : The founder of an English news portal, ‘Simplicity,’ Andrew Sam Rajapandian was arrested for writing on the alleged corruption in Public Distribution System and also for not  providing proper food to government doctors involved in Covid-19 treatment.

Rajapandian was arrested late Thursday evening, following a complaint from a City Corporation officials claiming that the reports appeared in
the portal were totally “false and provocative” against the administration and state government.

Police registered cases under IPC Sections 189, 505 (i) and Sec.3 of the Epidemic Diseases Act on Wednesday and was produced before a magistrate and remanded to judicial custody Thursday evening, police said. 

Earlier, one journalist and photographer from the portal were taken.for questioning  for over four hours with regard to the cases, they said.

The officials in the complaint said that reports in various social media including Twitter, WhatsApp and Facebook were “totally false and against the
Government which was struggling to fight the Coronavirus spread”.

The portal had reported that the Government healthcare professionals.and workers involved in the fight against coronavirus were not  giver proper food and employees under Public Distribution System were siphoning off the relief fund meant for the poor, the FIR filed by the police said adding that these reports were “provocative and may turn the workers against the Government and upset the entire PDS activities.”

Meanwhile, CPIM MP P R Natarajan of Coimbatore today condemned the arrest of Pandiarajan.

Journalists associations of Coimbatore and Tirupur and some senior journalists across India also condemned the arrest stating that it was totally against freedom of the press.