NewsMinute editor-in-chief files FIR against online trolls

Dhanya Rajendran, editor-in-chief of the Bangalore-based The NewsMinute, has filed a case of online abuse against social media trolls with the Chennai cyber crime police on Wednesday.

This comes hours after the Haryana BJP chief’s son, Vikash Barala, was arrested for stalking a Chandigarh-based DJ and daughter of a senior IAS officer, Varnika Kundu.

On August 4, Rajendran had tweeted a review of Shah Rukh Khan’s latest movie, Harry Met Sejal. In her tweet, Rajendran said that Khan’s movie was worse than Tamil hero Vijay’s film, Sura. This was enough to get the trolls going and within hours #PublicityBeepDhanya began trending on Twitter.

Despite support on social media from fellow journalists among others, the online trolling continued for over three days with approximately 30,000 tweets, after which Rajendran filed an FIR against unnamed people under non-bailable offences.

“The tweet was an opinion without being rude or aggressive. Immediately, what followed was a spate of abuse, personal, sexual, threatening tweets and cyber-stalking,” she said in her complaint.