Mumbai Police on Thursday, 10 February, arrested a 24-year-old man, named Siddharth Shrivastav, in connection with rape and death threats he allegedly sent to independent journalist Rana Ayyub on Twitter and Instagram.
The accused, who has studied till class 10, works as a salesman in a garment shop and belongs from Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal.
A police officer informed, “Shrivastav allegedly threatened to kill Rana if she continued her work as a journalist. He also used vulgar and obscene language against her,” Hindustan Times reported.
The police informed that the accused used a fictitious name while operating his Instagram profile.
Shrivastav was served a notice by the police and later arrested in Mumbai. He was then produced before a metropolitan magistrate in Bandra by the police seeking his custody, however he was remanded him to judicial custody by the court. He would be lodged in jail after his RT-PCR test, Hindustan Times reported.
Expressing her thanks to the Mumbai Police, Ayyub had tweeted on Thursday, “Mumbai cyber crime has made the first arrest in the rape and death threats issued to me. A young man has been arrested from Bhopal for giving me death threats. Hugely impressed with the alacrity of @MumbaiPolice and @CPMumbaiPolice who had promised me justice without delay. (sic)”
Ayyub, who faces such threats on a regular basis for her journalistic work, had informed the cyber police that over 26,000 abusive tweets were posted on her Twitter handle and other platforms over the period of a few days.
A deputy commissioner of police rank officer was quoted as saying, “The accused persons posted fake news about Ayyub saying that she has been banned from Saudi Arabia and the user also gave her rape threats and abused her. The offence has been registered against four Twitter and two Instagram account users on Friday.”
'Received 26,000 Abusive Tweets': Rana Ayyub
On 25 January, Ayyub had said that most of the nearly 26,000 tweets, were abusive and directed rape and death threats at her. She added that most of the abuse was by right-wing Indian users and Saudi nationalists for her tweets criticising the air strike on Yemen.
After Ayyub’s tweet on the air strike, a YouTube channel posted a video where two women presented claimed that Saudi Arabia had banned Ayyub.
In a tweet, Ayyub stated that the portal was spreading fake news by using a photoshopped tweet image, where Ayyub supposedly said that she hates India and all Indians.
In response, the portal uploaded another video claiming that the facts presented in their news were all correct and authentic.
Meanwhile, Mumbai police officers are also looking into the YouTube video and have secured information on the six Twitter and Instagram accounts from the service providers.
The accused persons have been booked by the West Region Cyber Police Station under sections 354A (Sexual Harassment), 506-2 (death threats), 509 (outraging modesty of women), 500 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code and 66c (Punishment for identity theft) and 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of Information Technology (IT) Act, the police said.
In the Twitter thread informing of the arrest, Ayyub also said:
“I have been told that the other perpetrators and instigators will also be arrested shortly. I would take this moment to urge other women to come forward and fight this harassment and intimidation. We are equally responsible in creating a safe space for women.”
(With inputs from Hindustan Times.)
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