Award-winning journalist Neha Dixit has revealed on Twitter that she and her partner and filmmaker Nakul Singh Sawhney have been physically stalked and threatened for several months. According to her statement, the stalking began in September last year and on Monday, someone attempted to break into their home.
“The stalker identifies my exact physical location on phone calls and threatens me with rape, acid attack and death, clearly bringing my profession as a journalist into the conversation,” she wrote. “The stalker also indicates the whereabouts of my partner, Nakul, who is a documentary filmmaker, and threatens to kill us both.”
Neha noted that several phone numbers and different voices were used to call her. On January 25 around 9 pm, there was a break-in attempt on her home. She said that the person fled when she opened the door and shouted. She added that a police complaint has been filed and police are investigating.
Some update from my end: #PressFreedom #RapeThreat #LifeThreat #Offlineviolence pic.twitter.com/cpNgzwvGDr
— Neha Dixit (@nehadixit123) January 27, 2021
“I feel the need to put this on record because while there is a lot of conversation about online trolling, and rightfully so, it is time that we make a sincere effort to up the momentum on offline, physical threats and attacks too. Looking at the recent precedents where so many journalists, artists, filmmakers, activists, academics have faced violence, some killed, for doing their job, it is imperative that we start paying attention to violence beyond the online world,” she wrote.
Neha is known for her coverage on social justice, politics, and gender violence. In 2015 for Outlook India, she wrote about the sexual violence and rape faced by women of religious minorities during the Muzaffarnagar riots in 2013. At the time, she reported facing rape and death threats because of her work.
Nakul, who is a documentary filmmaker, released his film Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai in 2015 which looked at the aftermath of the 2013 Muzaffarnagar communal riots. A screening of the film at Delhi University was stopped by the ABVP. The incident sparked widespread solidarity with the filmmaker and the documentary. Nakul also runs the Uttar Pradesh film collective ChalChitra Abhiyaan.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), journalists in India are often subjected to threats, legal action and attacks. The country has been listed among the five most dangerous countries for journalists since 2010, according to Reports Without Borders.