The Vadodara City Police have confirmed that they have registered a suo moto case and detained Shubham Mishra in respect of an abusive and threatening video. He will be produced in a court today, July 13.
Standup comedian Agrima Joshua faced immense criticism for her insulting remarks against the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in an old video. Troller Shubham Mishra, who is a resident of Deep Darshan society in Atladra area, Vadodara, ranted against her in a video shared on his Instagram page. He was seen hurling abusive words and making rape threat against the comedian.
Shubham Mishra's created ripples in social media with many people condemning him for it. Some celebs like Kunal Kamra, Swara Bhasker and Richa Chadha urged Gujrat Police and the National Commission for Women (NCW) to take appropriate legal action against the Vadodara-based social media influencer.
After seeing the mounting pressure, Vadodara City Police took cognisance and nabbed him on Sunday evening, July 12. The police tweeted, "Vadodara City Police took suo moto action in respect of an abusive, threatening video which was uploaded and shared on Social media by Shubham Mishra. We have detained him and initiated the legal process for registration of FIR against him under relevent section of IPC and IT act."
A Suo Motu case was registered against Shubham Mishra at the Cyber Crime police station. Following this he was booked under Indian Penal Code sections 294 (Obscenity), 504 (Intentionally insults to break public peace) 505 (Statements conducing to public mischief), 506 (Criminal intimidation) and 509 (Intending to insult modesty of a woman), as well as section 67 of the Information Technology Act (Transmission of electronic material which is lascivious or tends to deprave or corrupt people).
"We initially booked him under IPC Section 354 (a) for sexual harassment, but later dropped it because the original complainant is needed to file the case under this section. Since it is a suo motu case, we cannot add it. We also received communication from Pune Police stating that the original complainant has approached them to file a case against the accused who is in our custody," the Indian Express quoted Sandeep Chaudhary, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Zone 2 in Vadodara, as saying.
The Vadodara police stated that they were alerted by Bollywood actress Swara Bhaskar. "Mishra was nabbed after technical tracing of the source of his video, which our officials came across on the Twitter handle of actress Swara Bhaskar with a message seeking legal action," read the statement released by the police.
The Vadodara police say that Shubham Mishra was lodged at the Vadodara Crime Branch lock up for the night. He will be produced in court on Monday (July 13) after he undergoes the mandatory COVID-19 test during the day.
