A Bengaluru youth was arrested on Monday for allegedly posting a derogatory message following the death of actor Puneeth Rajkumar. The teenager, who has a profile by the name 'Ritvikks' on Instagram, had uploaded a series of posts that showed a beer bottle with a caption claiming that he would "piss" on the actor's grave.
The post sparked outrage on social media and it was brought to the attention of the Bengaluru Cyber Crime Police by Punith RK, BJP Secretary for Bengaluru Central District. Late on Monday night, Bengaluru Police Commissioner took to Twitter to say that the accused had been arrested. "The accused has been arrested and further legal action is being taken," he said.
The accused has been arrested and further legal action is being taken. https://t.co/uIEHFryfUk
— Kamal Pant, IPS (@CPBlr) November 1, 2021
Police sources said that they are considering taking action against the friends of the Instagram user who was arrested, Deccan Herald reported.
The Bengaluru police had barred the sale of alcohol till Sunday, following the death of Puneeth Rajkumar as a precautionary measure to help mitigate any untoward incidents. Puneeth Rajkumar's sudden demise led to an outpouring of grief with more than 10 lakh people from all over Karnataka coming to Bengaluru to pay their respects to the late actor.
Puneeth Rajkumar has been a public figure in Karnataka for more than 40 years having been cast in film roles as a child actor. He was later reintroduced to the Kannada audience as a lead actor through the 2002 film Appu. His death, at the age of 46, due to a cardiac arrest sent shockwaves across Karnataka.
Like his father, Puneeth Rajkumar only acted in Kannada films and was a proponent of making family entertainers. His last film was Yuvarathna which released in 2021. He was working on the upcoming film Dvitva with director Pavan Kumar of the indie film Lucia fame.
In addition to his film roles, he was also a television presenter on the game show Kannadada Kotyadhipati, a Kannada version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?