Three held from Haryana for derogatory comments against women on Clubhouse app

MUMBAI: The BKC cyber police on Thursday arrested three youths from Haryana for allegedly using derogatory comments against women in audio chats on the Clubhouse app.
Police said two chat rooms in the app were created by the youngest accused, Akash Suyal (19), a class XII passout who was arrested from Karnal. The other two accused—Yashkumar Prashar (22), a law student; and Jaishnav Kakkar (21), a BCom student—were arrested from Faridabad.Mumbai police have got their custody on transit remand. The trio will be produced before a city court on Saturday.
On January 19, a woman lodged an FIR with the city police alleging that the accused, during a conversation in the chat rooms, had used abusive comments about women, especially from the Muslim community, on January 16 and 19. “Suyal was the moderator of the two chat rooms, while the other two accused were active participants,” said Milind Bharambe, joint commissioner of police (Crime Branch). He added that there were around 300 participants each in the two chat rooms.
“Those involved [the accused] in the chats had also discussed the auction of female body parts,” said an officer.
Police said they are also inquiring if the three Haryana youths had any links with the Bulli Bai app case accused. “We will write to the Clubhou- se app and seek information about the chat rooms and the complete chats,” said a senior police officer.
A cyber police team is analyzing the chat rooms to collect the details. “Only those invited through a link had the access to the chat rooms and could participate,” said Bharambe. The complainant told the police that photographs of her and a friend were used in the chat rooms on October 27 and November 27 last year, while a discussion about women was on.
Suyal had created an account on the social media site with the name KIRA xD, while Kakkar had an account with the name @jaishnav, and Parashar had an account with the name pardhan@haryana_aala and was known as Sher Singh ka Papa and Biker gang 5, said the police. “Soon after the FIR, police teams were sent to Haryana and the accused were taken into custody,” said cyber police DCP Rashmi Karandikar.
The accused have been booked for promoting enmity on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence and language; sexual harassment; stalking; defamation; and word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman under the IPC as well as under the IT Act.
On Friday morning, Priyanka Chaturvedi, Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP, tweeted, “Kudos @MumbaiPolice, they have got cracking on the Clubhouse chats too and some arrests have been made. Say no to hate. #Clubhouse”