A content creator by the name of Shubham Mishra, threatened the comedian with gangrape in a profanity-laden response on Instagram.
Mumbai: For the last two days, stand-up comedian Agrima Joshua has been a hurled with rape threats and abuse over a clip of her performance from April 2019.
In the video, Agrima speaks about Chhatrapati Shivaji’s upcoming statue in Maharashtra and the funny rumours about the statue she had encountered on Quora, a Q&A website.
After receiving negative criticism from several people who have claimed that the video from 2019 is offensive towards Shivaji, Agrima has apologised and taken down the video, but threats and abuses have continued.
A content creator by the name of Shubham Mishra, threatened the comedian with gangrape in a profanity-laden response on Instagram.
But while the Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh has asked the police to take legal action against Agrima, there has been no word from anyone in power on Shubham Mishra’s threat.
Two days ago, Agrima had tweeted to Aaditya Thackeray, the son of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, stating that the BJP’s IT cell has unleashed trolls on her and were pretending to be from the Shiv Sena.
“Now, I am pretty sure the Shiv Sena, has better things to take care of in Maharashtra right now, than some comic doing her job,” she had said.
The Habitat, where the clip was filmed in Mumbai, was vandalised reportedly by workers of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena on Friday night. MNS also demanded an apology from Agrima.
Shiv Sena MLA Pratap Sarnaik tweeted that he had written to Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh seeking Agrima’s arrest, and that strict action should be taken against her. He also added that she does not know who Shivaji Maharaj is, and claimed she insulted him.
Soon, Anil Deshmukh tweeted that he has initiated Mumbai’s Commissioner of Police of the Inspector-General of Cyber to “take legal action expeditiously”.
“I urge everyone to maintain calm and the law will take its course,” he said.
Agrima also tweeted her apologies.
I am sorry for having hurt the sentiments of the many followers of the great leader Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. My heartfelt apologies to followers of the great leader, who I sincerely respect. The video has already been taken down. Please amplify.
— Agrima Joshua 🇮🇳 (@Agrimonious) July 10, 2020
मेरी क्षमायाचना स्वीकार करे,
Please accept my humble apology,@cmoMaharashtra @authackrey@anildeshmukhncp@nitinraut@RajThackrey pic.twitter.com/uHBZMBPOfB— Agrima Joshua 🇮🇳 (@Agrimonious) July 11, 2020
Later, fellow comedian Kunal Kamra took to Twitter to stand in solidarity with the comic and raised the matter of Shubham’s video with the National Commission for Women.
The National Commission for Women on Saturday sought immediate action from the Gujarat Police for Shubham Mishra’s video hurling abuses and giving rape threats to a female stand-up comedian on social media.
In a letter to Gujarat Director General of Police (DGP) Shivanand Jha of the NCW said the commission has been tagged in a video posted on Twitter in which the man can be seen hurling abuses and giving rape threats to the woman.
Keeping in line with #NCW‘s commitment towards ensuring safety of #women online, our Chairperson @sharmarekha has written to @dgpgujarat for taking immediate action against Shubham Mishra, the man hurling abuses against a female comedian in this video.@kunalkamra88 @SaketGokhale https://t.co/6zfr6IEbyX
— NCW (@NCWIndia) July 11, 2020
“The NCW is committed to creating safe online space for women and ensuring cybersecurity to women and is perturbed by the rise in use of cyberspace to instigate crime against women,” NCW Chairperson Rekha Sharma said in the letter sent late Saturday night.
“Considering the sensitivity of the matter, it is requested that the immediate action shall be taken as per the Information Technology Act, 2000, against the miscreant and a feedback be apprised to the Commission,” she said.
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