Documentary filmmaker and Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) activist Divya Bharathi has been compelled to leave Tamil Nadu after she allegedly received threats, The News Minute reported. On August 1, Bharathi had said she had received hate calls for her depiction of a backward caste community in her documentary Kakkoos about manual scavengers.
“I do not think the police will try and track me,” Bharathi told The News Minute. “I mainly left because of the harassment I received from the caste groups. They [callers] went on about rape and acid attacks.”
Bharathi was arrested on July 25 for a case registered against her in 2009. She was later let out on bail. In 2009, Bharathi and six others had participated in a protest against a Dalit student’s death because of lack of proper medical attention at Government Rajaji Hospital.
“I had to go to the police station every morning at 10 to sign for the 2009 case,” the filmmaker told the online news portal. “I was drinking tea at a stall near the station. On the fourth day, I got a call saying ‘How dare you stand and drink tea there like a man? We are coming after you, watch out!’”
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