This Article is From Oct 22, 2012

Chennai professor arrested for tweets about singer Chinmayi

Chennai professor arrested for tweets about singer Chinmayi
Chennai: A male professor in Chennai has been arrested for vulgar tweets about popular singer Chinmayi Sripada.

Saravana Kumar Perumal, who teaches at the National Institute of Fashion Technology or NIFT, allegedly posted obscene and threatening messages about the singer as well as her mother on both Twitter and Facebook.

In her police complaint filed on October 18, Ms Sripada alleged that since January last year, "a few individuals have threatened to kill, rape and assault me on Twitter". She added that "there are aspersions cast on my character as well as a chronic steam of vulgar references and innuendoes even about my mother". She listed six twitter handlers - @senthilchn, @RajanLeaks, @asharavkay, @losongelesram, @vivajial and @thyirvadai - and alleged that the same people "have also been saying I'm against Tamil...and that I have also taken up cudgels against Sri Lankan Tamils". She said she feared that the "patently false information that could pit groups against me, thereby endangering my life has also been put out by trouble makers".

Speaking to NDTV, Ms Sripada's mother said, "This issue shows the plight of single mothers; I treated them as my own sons and tried my best to reach out, but all my efforts went waste. Women should be respected. I told Chinmayi to forgive them every time, but she was pushed".

Police say they have identified the group responsible for the tweets under question. According to them, the NIFT professor's mobile phone and broadband connection records match with the said tweets. They have arrested him under the Information Technology Act 2005 and Prevention of Women Harassment Act.

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