The accused hiding behind the veil of anonymity while giving online rape threats to Indian cricketer Virat Kohli and actor Anushka Sharma's daughter has been busted. The Mumbai Police Cyber Cell traced the location of the man responsible for the vile behaviour to Hyderabad, where he was arrested on Wednesday and is being brought to Mumbai.
The Mumbai Police identified the accused as 23-year-old Ramnagesh Alibathini, who used the now-deleted Twitter handle @Criccrazygirl to give out rape threats to Virat and Anushka's 9-month-old daughter Vamika anonymously. Alibathini is a software engineer and worked for a food delivery app earlier, reports said.
India's loss and online abuse
It all started when India lost to Pakistan in the T20 World Cup match. While netizens targeted Indian paceman Mohammed Shami, who was subjected to religious discrimination, Kohli stepped in and voiced his support to shut the trolls. Soon after, Kohli found himself at the centre of online abuse by anonymous trolls, but the rape threats to Virat's daughter was met with criticism even as the screenshots of the tweet were shared widely across the social media platform.
Amidst the chaos, many users claimed that the troll was a Pakistani, who was just dishing out on Twitter. However, Alt News and Boom Live investigated the origin of the now-deleted account to find out that the accused was an Indian user belonging to Hyderabad. The accused reportedly used the accounts under two other handles: @ramanheist and @pellikuturuhere.
Earlier, the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) issued a notice to the Deputy Commissioner of Delhi Police Cyber Crime Branch, demanding immediate action against the online troll. "It has been reported that online threats are being given to rape the nine months old girl child of Virat Kohli since the team's defeat in the recent India Pakistan cricket match. It is learnt that he is being also attacked since he spoke against the incessant trolling of his teammate Md Shami who was targeted for his religion by online trolls," the notice read.
In a matter of one week, the Mumbai Police Cyber Crime Wing was able to find the accused responsible for such vile remarks and the investigation is on.