Thiruvananthapuram:The BJP on Tuesday criticised the Kerala police for arresting YouTuber Shajan Skaria over allegations of airing defamatory content, calling it a violation of constitutional rights and freedom of the press.

The act of arresting a person at night while he was having dinner and not allowing him to change his clothes is proof of the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s “intolerance” towards constitutional rights and freedom of the press, the party said.

In a hard-hitting statement, BJP state president Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the saffron party would never accept such authoritarian measures.

“These rights are being blatantly violated in the states ruled by the INDIA Alliance, which talks eloquently about constitutional rights and freedom of expression and free press,” he alleged.

YouTuber Skaria was arrested on Monday night by the cyber police based on a complaint from a woman, who alleged that he broadcast defamatory content about her.

The BJP state unit president said his party would not tolerate any action that violated the constitutional rights of not only Skaria but anyone from Kerala.

The BJP will resist and defeat such moves at any cost, he said.

Alleging that the police had arrested Skaria at midnight to keep him in custody, Chandrasekhar said the police, however, could not do that.

The BJP is strongly opposed to the “police raj” in Kerala, he added.

A woman, currently residing abroad, had lodged a complaint against Shajan Skaria, accusing him of “airing defamatory content”.

She also gave a statement against him in a court under Section 164 of the CrPC, police added.

Following the complaint, Skaria was taken into custody from his residence, the police said.

He has been charged under non-bailable Sections 75(1) (making sexually coloured remarks) and 79 (acts intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Section 67 of the Information Technology (IT) Act, and Section 120(o) of the Kerala Police (KP) Act, they said.

The YouTuber was released on bail by a court later, sources added.