CHENNAI: Dismissing charges of denial of freedom of expression of BJP State Secretary SG Suryah, CPM state secretary K Balakrishnan on Saturday said that his party firmly believes in free speech but the BJP leader’s social media post was slanderous one without any truth in it.

“BJP state secretary SG Suryah was arrested by Madurai cyber crime police based on a complaint lodged by CPM district secretary M Ganesan over his social media post. He was arrested and produced before the court. The arrest has been condemned by several BJP leaders in the state and union ministers. They are crying that there is no freedom of expression. But what the BJP state secretary did was slander without any truth. Spreading false information is the character of fascism,” he said in a statement.

Suryah had posted that a sanitation worker died due to communist councillor in Pennadam town panchayat in Madurai. “On this CPM Madurai MP Su Venkatesan was maintaining a stoic silence,” he wrote. However, the CPM leader said that there was no town panchayat named Pennadam in Madurai district.

He noted that CPM has been advocating for use of machines for cleaning sewage. Marxist party has been at the forefront in the fight seeking justice for manual scavenger deaths.