Siddharth Suryanarayan, the Tamil actor, alleged on Thursday that he and his family received over 500 abusive calls, “rape and death threats” after the Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party leaked his phone number on social media.
“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. I will not shut up. Keep trying. @narendramodi @AmitShah,” the actor tweeted.
He said that he has recorded the calls and handed over “all the numbers (with BJP links and DPs)” to the police.
Siddharth had been tweeting about the Centre’s mismanagement of the second wave of Covid-19. The actor has always been vocal about social and political issues and has not stepped back from criticising the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre for its poor handling of the pandemic.
On Thursday, Siddharth shared a screenshot where a user, named Geetha Vasanth, shared the actor’s number and commented, “this fellow must never open his mouth… He is constantly bothering us.”
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. Will we survive these people? pic.twitter.com/dYOQMsEewi
— Siddharth (@Actor_Siddharth) April 29, 2021
Siddharth has been provided with police protection after this incident. Calling it a privilege that he “politely” gave up, Siddharth thanked the Tamil Nadu Police and tweeted: “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.”
According to The New Indian Express, Subramania Prasad AN, Tamil Nadu president of the BJP’s media wing, denied the allegations and called it a “cheap publicity” by the actor who made “baseless allegations” against the party and its leaders.
On April 23, Siddharth shared a tweet posted by BJP’s West Bengal unit, where Modi promised free Covid-19 vaccines to the public if the party was voted to power in the state. Legislative Assembly poll was concluded in Bengal on Thursday.
“When you are voted out of power one day, this country will truly be vaccinated. Its coming. We will still be here… at least to remind you of this tweet,” Siddharth had written.
