A day after actor-turned-politician S.Ve. Shekher kicked off a controversy by sharing a Facebook post containing derogatory remarks about women journalists, Lakshmi Subramanian, a woman journalist, has lodged a police complaint against the BJP politician and sought action under the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Women Harassment Act. A few journalists staged a protest in front of his house.
On Thursday, Mr. Shekher shared a post with damaging references to women journalists. Following this, many journalists condemned him. Mr. Shekher later deleted the post and tendered an apology, saying he had forwarded a friend’s post “without reading the content” and by mistake. He also said his act was “unintentional.”
Meanwhile, Ms. Subramanian lodged a police complaint on Friday. She stated that it was disturbing to read the post and many had trolled her on her social media page.
“It is totally derogatory and defames every woman at work and he spews venom on every woman, assassinating their character. He has deleted his post. But his post has given the courage to the Right Wing trolls to go ahead. I want to put an end to this so that it doesn’t happen to other women in future. Hence, I lodged a complaint,” she said.
A group of journalists protested outside the BJP office at around 4.30 p.m. Later, a few of them protested in front of Mr. Shekher’s house. “Some, reportedly from the media, hurled stones at his house. He was not at home and no one was injured. We have registered a case under the Tamil Nadu Property Prevention of Damage and Loss Act and have detained 32 of them. Further investigation is on,” said a police officer. The journalists were later let go. The police officer said they were investigating the complaint given by the woman journalist.
‘Not appropriate’
Speaking about the issue, Mr. Shekher said that he had already unconditionally apologised for sharing the derogatory post. While everybody had a democratic right to protest, Mr. Shekher said it was inappropriate to throw stones at his house in Mylapore.
“I don’t know what more I should do after I have already apologised for my actions,” he said. He said he would be more mindful while using social media.
