Actor Siddharth Suryanarayan, who is known for being vocal in his criticism of the ruling BJP government, has alleged that he is being attacked by the BJP Tamil Nadu IT cell by leaking his phone number. Now, the actor said he has received more than 500 calls of abuse, rape and death threats to him and his family in the last 24 hours.
The actor took to Twitter and said he and his family were being harassed by calls from unknown numbers, raining threats of murder and rape, in addition to hurling abuses at him.
On Thursday morning, he tweeted, "My phone number was leaked by members of TN BJP and @BJPtnITcell. Over 500 calls of abuse, rape and death threats to me & family for over 24 hrs. All numbers recorded (with BJP links and DPs) and handing over to police."
The actor further went on to share screenshots of the trolls who abused and threatened him on social media and wrote: "This is one of many social media posts by BJP TN members leaking my number yesterday and telling people to attack and harass me. 'Ivan inimela vaaye thirakka koodathu' (this fellow must never open his mouth again). We might survive COVID-19. Will we survive these people?"
However, the state president of BJP's IT wing C T R Nirmal Kumar denied the charge and said, "None of the party members are involved in such an act. The party had issued clear instructions to the cadre not to react to any individual's tweets and views. If anybody brought to our notice that our members are behind such act, we will condemn it and take disciplinary measures against them."
Refuses police protection
Aruvam actor Siddhart expressed gratitude to his fans, who trended #IStandWithSiddharth on twitter after the actor received death threats. He further politely turned down the police protection granted to him in the wake of the threat calls and said the officers can better be used for the pandemic.
"Thank you @tnpoliceoffl for the protection. I am the first person in my entire family's history to be given the same. However, I would politely like to give up this privilege so the same officers' time is better used for something else during this pandemic. Thank you again.", he posted on Twitter.
