Man arrested for rape and acid attack threats to Swastika Mukherjee

Kolkata

Kolkata, July 17 (IANS) The Cyber Crime Department of Kolkata Police has arrested a Hoogly resident names Koushik Das for giving rape and acid attack threat to actress Swastika Mukherjee on social media. A journalist has also been arrested from Galsi, Bardhaman, for attributing a fake quote to the actress in a news story on his website.

"On June 26, days after my co-actor in the upcoming movie 'Dil Bechara' Sushant Singh Rajput's tragic death, there was a media report that falsely quoted me saying that suicides are now in fashion. Following this, there were fierce online attacks on me, including rape and death threats," said Swastika, on her verified Facebook account on Friday evening.

"I would like to inform you that the person behind the fake news posted on www.smritinews.in, Shuvam Chakraborty from Galsi, Bardhaman, Bengal has been arrested by the Kolkata Cyber Crime Department. He has accepted that he carried the false quote on the news portal and circulated it on social media," she added.

"Along with this, Koushik Das from Hooghly, who had sent me acid attack and rape threats based on this fake news, has also been arrested. Both of them have surrendered in court," said Swastika, adding: "Many of us, irrespective of our gender, face vicious cyber attacks which can sometimes snowball into real threats. At the least, this causes a great deal of mental agony and harm to the individuals and their families. I would urge people to muster courage and report such situations to law enforcement."

"Cyber bullying is not acceptable. Rape threats, acid attack threats are heinous crime and it needs to be addressed. It's time people think before attacking someone because there will be repercussions. Thank you KOLKATA POLICE Kolkata cyber crime department for taking such prompt action," Swastika shared.

Recently, Sushant Singh Rajput's girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty and Alia Bhatt's sister Shaheen Bhatt have opened up on getting rape threats from strangers on Instagram.