Hyderabad: A case has been registered with the Hyderabad Cyber Crimes department against actor Siddharth for his objectionable comments against badminton player Saina Nehwal.
The complaint has been registered by a lawyer, Zonal Incharge IT, and social media manager of BJP Telangana, Neelam Bhargava Ram and Prerna Thiruvaipati, following which a First Information Report (FIR) was filed by the police, against the actor, on Wednesday.
Hyderabad police booked the actor under section 509 of the Indian Penal Code (Word, gesture, or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) and section 67 (Punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act.
The actor had, in a Twitter post on January 6, retweeted a post by Nehwal in which she had expressed her concern over the security breach of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Punjab visit on January 5.
The actor apologised to Nehwal on Tuesday night, after receiving heavy criticism for his “rude joke” on the badminton player on Twitter.
In his letter of apology posted on Twitter, Siddarth began, “Dear Saina, I want to apologise to you for my rude joke that I wrote as a response to a tweet of yours, a few days ago. I may disagree with you on many things but even my disappointment or anger when I read your tweet, cannot justify my tone and words. I know I have more grace in me than that.”
Further, he apologised for his joke. “As for the joke…If a joke needs to be explained, then it wasn’t a very good joke to begin with. Sorry about a joke that didn’t land,” he penned.
Siddharth clarified that he had no “malicious” intent and that he is a “feminist ally”.
“I, however must insist my word play and humour had none of the malicious intent that so many people from all quarters have attributed to it. I am a staunch feminist ally and i assure you there was no gender implied in my tweet and certainly no intent to attack you as a woman,” he added.
He concluded with the hope that she will accept his letter.
