The 23-year-old man from Hyderabad in Telangana who was arrested by the Mumbai police for issuing an online rape threat to cricketer Virat Kohli's baby daughter following India's loss against Pakistan in the recent T20 World Cup had graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Hyderabad around two years ago, and had worked with a top food delivery app firm headquartered in Bengaluru.
According to reports, he had an annual pay package of around Rs 24 lakh at this job, but had recently quit as he wanted to pursue a master's degree in the US and was preparing for the same. Speaking to the Times of India, his father said that he did not understand why his son had done this and that the family had learnt of the incident only when policemen showed up at their door.
Ramnagesh Akubathini, a software engineer and a resident of Sangareddy area in Telangana, was arrested by a special team of the Mumbai Police on Wednesday, November 10. The threats targeted the 10-month-old daughter of Virat Kohli and actor Anushka Sharma, who have a house in Mumbai, police said. The incident (issuing threat) took place on October 24 and the cyber police registered a case on Kohli's behalf on Monday, November 8 after an initial investigation.
Speaking to TNM, Indrakaran police station Sub Inspector Rajesh Naik said, "We were informed that a team is coming from Mumbai to pick someone up from our jurisdiction. One person from our team accompanied the Mumbai team and picked up the youth. They have not revealed too much information about the case. His father has accompanied him to Mumbai."
Team India's star paceman Mohammed Shami was subjected to online abuse after India's loss against Pakistan. After skipper Kohli extended his support to Shami and called out religious discrimination, the now-deleted Twitter account @Criccrazyygirl had issued rape threats to Kohli's daughter. After Kohli's manager filed a complaint on October 24, an FIR was registered against the accused under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including 354-A (sexual harassment), 506 (Criminal intimidation) and 500 (Defamation), read with relevant sections of Information of Technology (IT) Act, the police said.
Following the threats online, the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) had called for an investigation and had issued a notice to the Delhi police, asking for a detailed "action taken report."
With PTI inputs
Read TNM’s ground reports from Chennai: