Tollywood actress lodges plaint for online defamation; vulgar posts uploaded on social media accounts

HYDERABAD: A popular Tollywood actress and a family member of a politician from Andhra Pradesh has become a victim of online defamation and cyberbullying. Based on her complaint, Hyderabad cyber crime police registered a criminal case on Saturday.

Police said that unidentified persons used vulgar language and defamed the actress by posting comments.

"The harassment is ongoing and includes defamatory allegations of a sexual nature, false accusations questioning character and morality, cyberbullying through repeated targeting across multiple posts, public humiliation with intent to damage reputation, and harassment of a continuous and systematic nature," the victim told police.

The actress, in the complaint, cited several vulgar posts that were uploaded on different social media accounts. Many of these comments were uploaded on Thursday last.

"The accused continued making defamatory statements with false sexual allegations and explicit language targeting my personal life and relationships," the actress said in her complaint.

"The continuous harassment and defamatory statements caused severe mental harassment and emotional distress, damage to reputation, both personal and professional, public humiliation through circulation of false allegations on various media, fear and intimidation due to persistent targeting, and violation of dignity and my inalienable right to privacy," the complainant said.

The actress asked police to get the objectionable comments removed by getting in touch with social media officials.

Police booked a case and slapped charges under Sections 78 (stalking) and 79 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act.

Recently, a character artiste and TV personality too faced severe online harassment, with many social media users trolling her, besides posting objectionable comments against her.