In recent years, several non-resident Indians (NRIs) in the Gulf have landed in trouble for making provocative posts on social media. Many such posts have been related to themes close to right-wing causes.
On Sunday, Gulf News, a news publication in the United Arab Emirates, reported that hundreds of people had taken to social media "calling for the immediate arrest" of a chef, identified as Trilok Singh.
He, allegedly, made threats against Swati Khanna, a law student in Delhi. "You eat in India and sing in Pakistan," Singh allegedly wrote in Hindi, apparently referring to her criticism of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Incidentally, the 38-year-old Trilok Singh was the head chef at the Grand Barbeque Indian restaurant at 24 Gold Hotel near the Gold Souk in Deira. Originally from Bainjawari, Uttarakhand, Singh had been working at the restaurant for the past two years.
On February 29, Swati Khanna posted a screenshot of abusive messages in Hindi, apparently from Trilok Singh on Facebook, where she is described as a "prostitute" and told she would be raped in Delhi itself.
Nearly 600 people shared Swati Khanna's post on Facebook, while many others also shared screenshots of the messages, along with images of Trilok Singh, on Twitter. The Facebook profile of Trilok Singh was apparently deactivated soon after the incident.
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Ironically, the Lalit Hotel group also got dragged into the controversy as Trilok Singh had mentioned the company as his employer on Facebook. The Lalit Group tweeted, "We recently noticed a series of tweets about Trilok Singh. We strongly condemn this behavior and clarify that Trilok Singh is not a part of @thelalitgroup since last two years. We are also reporting his profile to Facebook for removing his current working status."
Last year, an Indian man working in Dubai was deported for celebrating the terror attacks in New Zealand that targeted Muslims. In 2018, a Keralite working in a oil company in Abu Dhabi was deported for threatening to kill Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.