Farmer's protest: Yogendra Yadav arrested in Tamil Nadu

In a tweet, Yadav said: "Finally, I have been arrested. My crime: wanting to meet farmers in their home. Where is rule of law?"

Yadav earlier said he visited the state to join the farmers' movement against eight lane way.

He earlier tweeted: "TN police has detained me and team in Chengam PS, Thiru Annamalai district. We came on the invitation of Movement Against 8Lane Way. We were prevented from going to meet farmers, phones snatched, manhandled and pushed into police van. First hand experience of police state in TN!"

Yadav, the founding member of Swaraj India, said he was arrested minutes after he spoke to Kandasamy, Collector, Thiru Annamalai "about acquisition and complains of police excesses for 8 lane way".

The leader added saying he was detained by police owing to law and order problems.

The entire incident, in which Yadav was stopped by police, was filmed and shared by the leader on his Twitter handle.

Lawyer Prashant Bhusan criticised the move of arresting Yadav and tweeted: "This is truly police Raj in TN being run by remote control from Delhi. Under what law can police arrest @_YogendraYadav for merely holding meetings to meet farmers who are protesting against acquisition of their land? Undeclared emergency! "

The expressway is facing problems as several local people including farmers are objecting to eight lane road over fears of losing their own land.

Yadav, who was an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader, was ousted from the outfit in 2015 after he took on chief Arvind Kejriwal. He is also the founding member of Jai Kisan Andolan.

Image: Screen grab/twitter.com/_YogendraYadav