Mumbai police have arrested three people from Haryana in connection with a chat on the Clubhouse app where derogatory and abusive remarks were made against Muslim women.
Based on a complaint by a woman, the cyber cell of the Mumbai crime branch has registered a case against the three accused – identified as Akash, Jeshnav Kakkar and Yash Parashar – under sections 153(a), 295(a), 354(a), 354(d) of IPC, and section 67 of Information Technology Act 2000. Two of the accused will be produced in a local court later in the day, reported news agency quoting an official.
“We have registered a case against a vulgar Clubhouse app chat and arrested one person from Karnal, Haryana and is taken to 3 days SIT remand. 2 other accused are picked up from Faridabad and the process for their transit remand is in progress,” Milind Bharambe, Joint CP Crime, said.
Bharambe confirmed that two chat rooms were created on the Clubhouse app, one on January 16band the other on January 16. He said that many participants were involved in making derogatory remarks about women and talking about auctioning their body parts.
“Kudos @MumbaiPolice, they have got cracking on the Clubhouse chats too and some arrests have been made. Say no to hate. #Clubhouse,” Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said in the tweet after the arrests.
A two-minute video clip of the Clubhouse chat was shared on Twitter in which participants were heard discussing Muslim women under the topic ‘Muslim Gals are more beautiful than Hindu Gals’. They were also heard making comparisons between the Babri masjid demolition and sexual intercourse with Muslim women.
After public outcry, the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) Swati Maliwal issued a notice to the cybercrime cell of the Delhi Police, seeking action against people making derogatory remarks.
“In the said conversation, participants can be clearly heard making obscene, vulgar, and defamatory remarks over women and girls especially from the Muslim community,” the notice said.
Mumbai police made arrests a day after the Delhi police sought details from the Clubhouse app and search engine Google about the organiser of the audio group chat. The Delhi police had identified some men and women participants of the group audio chat as part of the investigation, reported news agency quoting people familiar with the development. The Delhi police had also registered FIR under sections 153(a), 295(a) and 354(a) of IPC.