A Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the July 17 Kallakurichi violence informed the Madras High Court on Monday that it had arrested 40 individuals and three juveniles for rioting and damaging police vehicles as well as a private school building where a Class XII girl died on July 13.
Justice N. Sathish Kumar was also told that the SIT had arrested 13 other individuals who had shared provocative posts on seven WhatsApp groups and were instrumental in gathering the rioters. Further, 59 YouTube channels, 23 Facebook accounts and 7 Twitter handles had been blocked so far, the team said.
The submissions were made in a status report filed by Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Pravin Kumar Abinabu, heading the SIT, which was constituted as per court orders to identify those who had instigated the violence and those who had been conducting a parallel trial on social media over the girl’s death.
