Rumours of 'attack' on migrant workers: TN BJP chief Annamalai booked on charge of ‘inciting violence’

News Network

March 5, 2023

The Chennai police under the CCB Cyber Crime Division registered a case against former police BJP Tamil Nadu President Annamalai for inciting violence and promoting enmity between two groups after rumours of attacks on migrant workers in the state

Messages with videos of migrant workers being 'attacked' were doing the rounds on social media and went viral. One such fake message was allegedly a tweet that claimed "12 migrants from Bihar were hung to death in Tamil Nadu for speaking in Hindi," by Prashant Umrao, a spokesperson of the Uttar Pradesh’s BJP unit.

The police and state administration have claimed that the videos showing labourers being attacked on are fake and the two incidents occurred much earlier in Tiruppur and Coimbatore. Both cases were not clashes between the people of Tamil Nadu and migrant workers, they said.

However, linked the DMK to the recent spread of fake news that migrant workers from Bihar were attacked in the state.

He said that DMK's efforts in "mocking" the work done by North Indians is the reason why the fake news spread so quickly.

"Since DMK’s origin, it has been spewing hate against a particular community. Since the DMK came to power, the party's ministers and MPs have mocked (North Indians) in their speeches countless times”, said Annamalai.

He added that DMK leader Dayanidhi Maran insulted North Indian workers and said they only worked in building construction, or as household workers. Annamalai also said state minister K Ponmudy had earlier said that North Indians sell panipuris in the streets of Tamil Nadu.

Following his statement, Chennai's Cyber Crime Unit registered a case against Annamalai under sections 153, 153A(1)(a),505(1)(b) IPC 505(1)(c) of the Indian Penal Code.

Annamalai reacted to the case filed against him and challenged the DMK to arrest him.

Who is behind fake news?

DMK MLA TRB Raja has blamed the BJP for the false rumours claiming that migrant workers are under attack in Tamil Nadu. The DMK MLA said it was BJP spokesperson Prashant Umrao who spread the fake news.

“It was Uttar Pradesh BJP Spokesperson Prashant Umrao who spread the false news that 12 Bihari workers were killed in Tamil Nadu, which was later clarified by the state police”, said TRB Raja.

He also alleged that the BJP tried to use the false news for political gains but their plans were "thwarted by CM Stalin’s actions, because of which a case was registered against Prashant Umrao".

TRB Raja also questioned if Annamalai would ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is also an MP from Varanasi, to bring an end to the spread of such false news.

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IndiGo CEO says less than 1,000 cancellations on Dec 6; normalcy by Dec 15

News Network

December 5,2025

New Delhi, Dec 5: IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers issued a public apology this evening after more than a thousand flights were cancelled today, making it the "most severely impacted day" in terms of cancellations. The biggest airline of the country cancelled "more than half" of its daily number of flights on Friday, said Elbers. He also said that even though the crisis will persist on Saturday, the airline anticipates fewer than 1,000 flight cancellations.

"Full normalisation is expected between December 10 and 15, though IndiGo cautions that recovery will take time due to the scale of operations," the IndiGo CEO said.

IndiGo operates around 2,300 domestic and international flights daily.

Pieter Elbers, while apologising for the major inconvenience due to delays and cancellations, said the situation is a result of various causes.

The crisis at IndiGo stems from new regulations that boost pilots' weekly rest requirements by 12 hours to 48 and allow only two night-time landings per week, down from six. IndiGo has attributed the mass cancellations to "misjudgment and planning gaps".

Elbers also listed three lines of action that the airline will adopt to address the issue.

"Firstly, customer communication and addressing your needs, for this, messages have been sent on social media. And just now, a more detailed communication with information, refunds, cancellations and other customer support measures was sent," he said.

The airline has also stepped up its call centre capacity.

"Secondly, due to yesterday's situation, we had customers stranded mostly at the nation's largest airports. Our focus was for all of them to be able to travel today itself, which will be achieved. For this, we also ask customers whose flights are cancelled not to come to the airports as notifications are sent," the CEO said.

"Thirdly, cancellations were made for today to align our crew and planes to be where they need to start tomorrow morning afresh. Earlier measures of the last few days, regrettable, have proven not to be enough, but we have decided today to reboot all our systems and schedules, resulting in the highest numbers of cancellations so far, but imperative for progressive improvements starting from tomorrow," he added.

As airports witnessed chaotic scenes, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) stepped in to grant IndiGo a temporary exemption from stricter night duty rules for pilots. It also allowed substitution of leaves with a weekly rest period.

Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu has said a high-level inquiry will be ordered and accountability will be fixed.

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