The Hyderabad Police’s cybercrime wing on Wednesday filed a case against actor Siddharth for his tweet about badminton player Saina Nehwal, PTI reported.
The actor made a seemingly sexual slur at Nehwal while responding to her tweet in which the badminton player had expressed concern about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s convoy being stuck for several minutes on a flyover in Punjab.
Siddharth has been booked under Indian Penal Code Section 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of women) and the Information Technology Act based on a complaint by Prerna Thiruvaipati, the vice president of Hindutva organisation Hindu Jana Shakti.
“A woman named Prerna approached [the] cybercrime wing and lodged a complaint against actor Siddharth for his sexist remarks against shuttler Saina Nehwal on Twitter,” said Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police of cybercrime wing KVM Prasad, ANI reported.
On Wednesday, Siddharth apologised to Nehwal through a letter saying that while he may disagree with her on many things, his tone and use of words were unjustified. “As for the joke...If a joke needs to be explained, then it wasn’t a very good joke to begin with,” he had said. “Sorry about a joke that didn’t land.”
Nehwal accepted the actor’s apology, saying she was not “bothered about it” as she was “happy in her space”.
On Monday, the National Commission for Women said it has written to Twitter India to block the actor’s account over his tweet.
The National Commission for Women on Tuesday also took cognisance of another instance in which Siddharth allegedly made derogatory remarks against a news anchor. The panel’s chairperson, Rekha Sharma, wrote to the Tamil Nadu director general of police seeking action against the actor.
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