As his IPL team member Australian Luke Pomersbach was arrested for allegedly molesting a woman here, Royal Challengers Bangalore director Siddharth Mallya attacked her in a tweet.
Mr. Siddharth accused her of talking nonsense and went on to say “she was all over me last [late on Thursday night] and asked for my bbm [blackberry messenger] pin.”
Later Mr. Siddharth Mallya defended his tweet but said that he was not questioning her character but merely stating a fact.
“I don't take any comments back. The tweet was in response to what she has said and I don't think there is anything wrong in that,” he told ‘NDTV.'
“I maintain that if Luke is in the wrong he would face the necessary sanctions. I don't think it is derogatory because I heard that the lady is speaking about beating up of her fiance. The guy was not exactly her fiance.”
“Luke is my player and RCB is like one family. So I would, of course, try and protect my player. But I maintain that I haven't spoken to him yet,” he said.
“What this girl is doing is idiotic,” Mr. Siddharth Mallya wrote on his twitter page.
“First SRK, now this...everyone loves a good scandal. Why can't ppl just enjoy the cricket...has everyone forgotten chris' 100? Everyone wants their 15 minutes,” he further wrote.
Later, when questioned on the controversial tweet, he lost his cool and told a mediaperson “don't touch me.”
When the mediapersons told him that he should not abuse the media, he opened the door of his car and said “I abuse you.”
Father defends son
Defending his son's remarks, RCB owner Vijay Mallya said he was not a child and tweeted his impressions about the “lady's conduct.”
“Twitter is a global forum and he has been tweeting for a while and he has his set of followers,” Mallya senior told NDTV when asked whether his son's tweets were appropriate.
Asked whether he had a chance to speak to Mr. Pomersbach, Mr. Mallya senior said, “No I haven't. This could have been probably one of the late night brawls. But we at RCB have always said that law should take its own course.”
Women criticise remarks
Meanwhile, women leaders and activists on Friday criticised Mr. Siddharth Mallya for his comments casting aspersions on the character of the American woman.
Reacting to his tweets, activist Ranjana Kumari said nobody had a right to sexually assault her.
“This kind of juvenile irresponsible behaviour will not be acceptable in the country, whosoever the person may be. He must apologise to the women of the country,” she said.
“None should do that”
Whatever her profession or character or her background, Ms. Kumari said nobody was supposed to ask such questions. “What he is doing by tweeting and behaving the way he is behaving, it is insulting women.
“By insulting women, he becomes an accomplice of a criminal because sexual assault is a criminal act. If some player who belongs to his team or his father's team has done it, he is trying to protect the player; by doing that he should also be arrested,” she said.
She said Mr. Siddharth Mallya was equally guilty of the charge because he was the accomplice of a criminal who had sexually assaulted another woman.
Congress spokesperson Renuka Choudhury said: “The easiest thing you can do is to denigrate a woman. He is a young man. I will give him good advice as a mother that you have to learn to respect women whatever the character is.”
