Overview
- A video from the June 21 Melur marathon and Yoga Day event shows Higher Education Minister P. Viswanathan touching the outstretched legs and feet of girl participants, footage that spread widely on social media and national outlets.
- A member of the DMK legal wing, Advocate Saranya Natarajan, lodged a complaint seeking FIR registration under Sections 11 and 12 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and asked police, the Tamil Nadu Cyber Crime Wing and the NCPCR to preserve electronic evidence.
- The complaint alleges the minister’s contact was deliberate and repeated and says some girls in the footage appear visibly uncomfortable.
- Viswanathan denies wrongdoing, says he provided first aid to students who fainted in the heat, calls the complaint politically motivated, and has expressed regret that his actions were misrepresented.
- Political opponents demand his resignation and child-protection groups say the case exposes gaps in safety rules and bystander intervention at public events; investigators have been asked to act but a public FIR or completed probe has not yet been confirmed so further developments are expected.