Citizens and various youth groups from Secunderabad protested at Malakjgiri cross roads on Sunday morning, demanding the suspension of TRS leader and Malkajgiri Corporator Jagadeesh Goud from the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC).
This followed the arrest of the corporator’s son, Neerukonda Abhishek Goud, by the cyber crime cell of the Rachakonda police on Saturday, on charges of harassing women online and seeking 'cybersex'.
Abhishek also allegedly forced women to send their nude pictures, failing which he threatened to upload their morphed pictures on social media and porn websites.
He was booked under cyberstalking sections of the Nirbhaya Act.
Advocate Prasanna, who was one of the people who took part in the protest, said, “Local youth, especially young women, were in shock after coming to know about the multiple crimes committed on social media by Abhishek Goud.”
Demanding that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and Municipal Administration Minister KT Rama Rao must suspend their corporator, several citizens protested with placards that read, “KCR! Would you have tolerated if your daughter was one of the victims?” and “Your silence is an encouragement.”
Another placard read: “Shame shame KCR” with a photo of a senior TRS leader hugging the accused.
The protesters said what especially irked them was that Abhishek Goud was a repeat offender.
In September, two women approached the police alleging that Abhishek Goud and his friends contacted them over Facebook and WhatsApp and harassed them, and was forcing them to meet him. Abhishek also threatened to upload morphed pictures of the women on porn websites.
Following this he was arrested, and granted bail.
“This is because Abhishek Goud’s attitude has not changed even after being arrested once. He was on bail on the same charges for harassing women with morphed nude photos,” Prasanna pointed out.
She also asked why there was no word from Nizamabad TRS MP K Kavitha, who is also KCR's daughter.
The protesters also demanded that a chargesheet be opened against Goud.
It was also reported that Goud had created 58 fake female Facebook profiles and deleted all the data from his phone when he learnt that a case was registered against him.
However, the police retrieved the data using forensic tools and uncovered his operations.