Actor Vanitha Vijaykumar was attacked allegedly by a supporter of Pradeep Antony, who was a contestant on the ongoing season 7 of reality TV show Bigg Boss Tamil before he was unceremoniously evicted. He was evicted for making women participants in the show feel unsafe and uncomfortable with his behaviour.
On Sunday, November 26, Vanitha recounted the incident and shared a photo of her face showing the injury to her left eye.
Taking to Twitter, Vanitha, whose daughter Jovika is a contestant on the current season of Bigg Boss Tamil, said that a man ambushed her near where she had parked her car and blamed her for a ‘red card’, after which he hit her on the face causing her to bleed. The incident reportedly took place at 1 am on Sunday. Vanitha is herself a former Bigg Boss contestant. Recently, she has been reviewing the daily proceedings of the reality show on YouTube.
“Brutally attacked by god knows who! A so called #PradeepAntony supporter. Finished my #BiggBossTamil7 review and had dinner and walked down to my car i parked in my sister sowmyas house was dark and a man appeared from nowhere and said red card kudukreengala… Ni support vera and hit me hard on my face and fleed away. I was in so much pain bleeding in my face and yelling,” (sic) she wrote.
Pradeep, who has acted in films like Aruvi and Vaazhl, was evicted from the latest season of Bigg Boss after women contestants complained that they felt unsafe around him. Jovika was one of the contestants who had complained about Pradeep’s behaviour and given him a ‘red card.’ Following this, Pradeep was promptly evicted from the show.
Pradeep, however, has amassed a huge following after his exit. His supporters, particularly men, feel that he was removed from the show without any ‘credible’ reason and a fair investigation. They believe that two contestants – Maya and Poornima – conspired to eliminate him using the ‘woman card’, brushing aside the allegations raised against him.
Vanitha added on Twitter that she has not reported the attack to the police as she “lost trust in the process”.
“I took first aid and left home with rage and not able to identify my attacker. He laughed like a lunatic which haunts my ears. Taking a break from everything as i am not in a physical condition to appear on screen. For those who support disturbed ppl danger is just a feet away,” (sic), she wrote.