A woman research scholar in Tamil Nadu’s Tuticorin airport arrested for shouting slogans — down with Modi, BJP-RSS fascist government — in the presence of a BJP leader on a flight has been released on bail on Tuesday. The 28-year-old Lois Sofia, a research scholar in Canada had allegedly shouted slogan in front of Tamil Nadu BJP president Tamilisai Soundararajan, who was on board with her during the flight.
Soundararajan had complained that Sofia had chanted slogans when she came near her to take her bag in the flight. Stating her reason for complaining against Sofia, Soundararajan had said, as reported by the NDTV, “She was not an ordinary passenger, I suspect some extremist organization behind her.”
Soon after the flight landed in Tuticorin airport on Monday, Soundararajan filed a complaint with the airport police and Sofia was arrested. The airport police shot the video in which it was seen that the BJP leader creating chaos at the airport saying, “How can she shout like that? This is not a public forum.” A complaint of creating “public nuisance” and “attempt to cause alarm” was registered against Sofia.
Returning the favour, Sofia’a father AA Sami, a retired government officer, has also filed a police complaint against Soundararajan and others for “criminal intimidation”, however it has not been registered by the police yet. Sami complained that his daughter was surrounded by men and abuses were thrown at her soon after they arrived at Tuticorin. On this, Soundrarajan told reporters that the men were upset workers.
This is not the first time SoJust before allegedly raising slogans, Sofia had tweeted, “I am on a flight with Tamilisai Soundararajan and really want to shout out ‘Down with Modi – BJP – RSS fascist government’. Will I be kicked off the flight?”
This is not the first time that Sofia has raised slogans. Earlier too, she had participated in the campaigns against the Sterlite Copper Plant in Tuticorin and the Chennai-Salem eight-lane expressway, adds the news website. In a tweet before her arrest, Sofia had posted: “I am on a flight with Tamilisai Soundararajan and really want to shout out ‘Down with Modi – BJP – RSS fascist government’. Will I be kicked off the flight?”
DMK Chief MK Stalin too supported Sofia and slammed the police action against her. He said that he will too repeat her slogans. He asked, “If you’d put behind bars all those who raise such slogans, how many lakh people would you jail?”
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