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Cithara Paul
Cithara Paul

MOLLYWOOD

Parvathy harassment: No one will go scot-free, assures police

parvathy-actress Actor Parvathy

Recently, superstar Mammootty had come out with a statement

A Kollam-based man named Rojan has been arrested for threatening actor Parvathy with rape after her comments against actor Mammootty's film Kasaba went viral. This was the second arrest in the case.

Earlier, a man who was arrested in the same case was released after he was granted bail by the court. Printo was accorded a celebrity welcome on various social media platforms.

But the state police is close on the heels of arresting others in the coming days. "Our cyber security wing is closely monitoring the profiles. Arrests will happen soon," said a police officer with the Cyber Dome. He said that the arrests would be made as per Sections 67 and 67(A) of IT Act and Section 507 and 509 of IPC. While the former deals with transmitting sexually explicit material electronically, the latter deals with outraging the modesty of women.

When asked how Printo, who was arrested first, got bail so soon, the police officer said that the police was taking care of the loophooles. "We will see to it that none of them will go scot free," said the officer.

When it was pointed out that Parvathy is still being bullied online, and that those who got bail are being hailed as heroes, the officer said that the police was monitoring all the profiles. "Many believe that they can do any cheap trick by sitting behind fake profiles. The arrests in coming days will prove that cyber bullies will have no place to hide," asserted the officer.

Parvathy has been receiving lewd and distasteful comments from users on Twitter and Facebook ever since she publicly criticised the misogynistic and sexist dialogues in the 2016 Malayalam film Kasaba during a function at IFFK. She said that listening to such lines in the movie disappointed her. Her comments at the open forum of the International Film Festival of Kerala in Thiruvananthapuram had drawn the ire of the fans of superstar Mammootty, who played the lead role in the movie. In the film, the actor, who plays a cop, is seen telling his female colleague that he could hit her so hard that it would disrupt her menstruation cycle.

Parvathy had given to police a bunch of URLs of social media posts in which people tried to bully her. 

According to him, the profiles of those who are being watched have been subjected to psychological analysis. "In fact, most of them are intrinsically anti-woman, who cannot stand an independent female. They are just using Mamootty's name to shower abuses," said the officer. 

Mamootty, meanwhile, had come out in open after maintaining a guarded silence about the online harassment Paravathy has been facing for the past few days. Maintaining that he was not following the controversy as he was "away", Mamootty said, “I don’t go after any controversy. What we need are meaningful debates. I have not assigned anyone to respond on my behalf or defend me,” said Mammootty.

He further added that freedom of opinion is as important as freedom of expression. Mammootty also said that he asked Parvathy to not worry about it too much when she had texted him about the issue, adding that he never appreciates his fans abusing anyone.

Meanwhile, Parvathy has been receiving support from various quarters, including the political spectrum. Shashi Tharoor, Congress  MP from thiruvananthapuram, extended his strong support and appreciation for the way Parvathy took a stand. State ministers A.K. Balan and K.K. Shailaja too have extended their support to Parvathy.

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