At a time when the country is mourning and coping with the gruesome rape and murder of a 26-year-old veterinary doctor from Shamshabad in Telangana, on the one hand there is a lot of discussion on exploring potential solutions to prevent sexual violence and harassment against women. On the other hand though – in a testimony to how rape culture is deeply prevalent in the society – some people have taken the opportunity to justify rape. Hiding behind anonymity, a couple of Facebook users have justified the victim’s rape, and further made vulgar comments about the deceased.
On Saturday, all the three commissionerates in Hyderabad – Hyderabad police, Rachakonda police and Cyberabad police – received complaints of some Facebook users who encouraged rape openly. A person with the username Simley Nani, wrote a post on Facebook by attaching photos of the victim saying, "Women deserve this for roaming in night". As the argument heated up, justifying his post, he commented, “All women should be raped like this.” When one person tried reasoning with him by asking, “If girls go out at night should we rape them?” For this, he responded, “What's wrong with it?”
Joining Simley Nani, another person identified as Amar Nath, wrote extremely distasteful comments against the deceased, which TNM has chosen not to publish respecting the privacy of the deceased and her family.
Telugu troll pages on Facebook took screenshots of these comments to exihibit how rape culture is thriving and ensured that these posts go viral, following which the persons hiding behind anonymity were forced to delete their accounts. Notwithstanding this, several people approached police stations and filed complaints taking objection to the sickening remarks.
Speaking to TNM, Rachakonda Cyber Crimes ACP, S Harinath said, “We have written to Facebook asking the details of these users. They are yet to give them. As per our investigation the accused are from Andhra Pradesh, and their Facebook accounts are inactive since yesterday.”
Similarly, Additional DCP Cyber Crimes Hyderabad, KCS Raghu Vir said, “We have taken suo-motu action. We are following up with Facebook. Only when they cooperate, we will be able to nab the offenders.”
Both the officials said that the offenders could be prosecuted under Information Technology Act coupled with IPC sections of 509 IPC (Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman).
Police said that they are monitoring social media and ready to take action against those who make offensive remarks against the deceased and attempt to denigrate women in general.