State Govt should step in: Activist on Vijay fans trolling woman journalist

Condemning the online abuse of journalist Dhanya Rajendran by the fans of Tamil actor Vijay, an activist on Thursday asserted that the State Government should step in and ensure that such miscreants are booked so that cases like these do not occur.

Speaking to ANI, activist Kishore K. Swamy said, "Freedom of expression should be respected and at the same time, when these incidents come up, the state government should step in and ensure that such miscreants are booked. As a responsible citizen, I totally condemn this. The troll on the journalist clearly indicates that it is a case of criminal intimidation for which action should be taken."

Yesterday, Chennai cyber crime police had taken up a case of online abuse, after actor Vijay fans trolled a woman journalist with abuses over the last three days.

Police filed the case against two or more Twitter handles and invoked various sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC), Information Technology Act 2000 and TN Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act, 2002.

Rajendran, Editor of thenewsminute.com, had tweeted on August 4 that she felt Shah Rukh Khan's new movie 'Jab Harry Met Sejal' was worse than Tamil hero Vijay's seven-year-old film, 'Sura.' In a matter of hours, over 31,000 tweets trended hashtag #publicitybeepDhanya, leading to a torrent of abuse from Vijay's fans that included name-calling, threats of rape and personal attacks.

After three days of inexorable trolling on social media, Rajendran filed a complaint with the Chennai police against unnamed people, under non-bailable offences.

Meanwhile, actor Vijay, said that everybody had a right to criticise films.

"I respect women in society. Anybody has the freedom of expression to criticise anybody's film. My opinion is that maligning or making slanderous comments against women should not be made," he said.