A young engineering graduate who threatened to rape Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli's nine-month-old daughter was arrested on Wednesday, Nov. 10, police said.
24-year-old Ramnagesh Akubathini, a software engineer, was arrested after his tweet targeting the cricketer's infant daughter went viral.
According to the police, Akubathini, an IIT Hyderabad graduate with a history of online trolling using multiple identities was passionate about cricket and had been upset after India's defeat to archrival Pakistan in the Twenty20 World Cup.
Nagesh used an identity called "Gappistan Radio" to tweet threats against Kohli and his infant daughter.
After the midnight tweet, Nagesh allegedly deactivated the account in the morning. He also deleted two more accounts, however, Kohli's manager had already registered a complaint at the Mumbai Police Cyber Cell and an investigation had been initiated.
By then a screenshot of Nagesh’s controversial tweet had gone viral on the internet and was flagged to the police in Mumbai and Delhi.
Fearing for his safety, Nagesh renamed his Twitter handle (@ramanheist) and pretended to be a Pakistani user, causing more chaos within the country.
However, Nagesh’s handle was tracked down by fact-check websites and he was arrested by the police, the News Minute reported.
Nagesh’s father claims that his son "accidentally" posted the rape threat and that he "must have mistyped after removing his lenses” and immediately deleted the post after realizing his mistake.
Nagesh is facing charges of sexual harassment, criminal intimidation, defamation, and publishing obscene material.
"He has been detained and is being brought to Mumbai," a police officer told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Indian cricketers have faced online hate and threats after the team was knocked out of the T20 international tournament.
Kohli was also attacked after he spoke out in favor of his teammate, Mohammed Shami, when the pace bowler was trolled over his religion, after the team’s 10 wicket loss against Pakistan.
"Attacking someone over their religion is the most pathetic thing one can do as a human. That is a very sacred and personal thing. People take out their frustration because they have no understanding of what we do," Kohli told reporters before the match with New Zealand.
"We're playing on the field, we're not a bunch of spineless people on social media. This has become a source of entertainment for some people which is very sad. All this drama created on the outside is based on people's frustrations. We stand by him 200 percent. Our brotherhood in the team cannot be shaken," Kohli had said.
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