Writer receives threat over Dipa tweets

A Jaipur-based writer who was trolled and threatened with rape for her tweets ahead of gymnast Dipa Karmakar’s Produnova move in Rio Olympics, found help after she posted a tweet to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

She received a call from the Rajasthan Chief Minister’s Office and her details were shared with the police. Jaipur police on Wednesday wrote to Twitter headquarters to track the trollers.

Jaipur Police Commissioner Sanjay Agarwal said: “Officials on Wednesday again visited her house. Jaipur police is writing to twitter headquarters asking them to give the details of three twitter handles of three unknown persons against whom an FIR has been lodged so that their IP address could be tracked at the earliest.”

Police lodged an FIR on August 15 and a case against Twitter accounts of three unknown persons was registered under Sections 66 D (Punishment for cheating by personation by using computer resource) and 67 (Punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the IT Act. The cybercrime cell is also assisting the police department.

Twenty-six-year-old freelance writer, Saudamini Deo from Jagatpura, Jaipur, was trolled on Twitter on the eve of Independence Day following her post on Dipa Karmakar.

On August 14,  Saudamini tweeted, “Tonight, she is going to risk her life to win an Olympic medal. Life is not worth any medal, for any damned country.”

She also wrote, “It is an incredible achievement, of course, but gymnasts from richer countries don’t have to perform the produnova, called the death vault, to gain points.”

After this tweet, her twitter wall witnessed sharp criticism followed by threat to life and rape warnings, after which she sought help from minister Swaraj.