Pakistani columnist Mehr Tarar, who had in January tweeted to the Mumbai Police complaining about an offensive tweet by an Indian user, has complained again about an Indian user who has allegedly been harassing her son. While the police are looking into the matter, officials said there is not much that can be done unless she files an FIR.
Ms Tarar was in the news two years ago after a ‘Twitter war’ with the late Sunanda Pushkar, wife of Congress MP from Thiruvanthapuram Shashi Tharoor.
In January this year, a user named Ganesh Aiyer had sent a threatening and offensive tweet to her, which was brought to the attention of the Mumbai Police via their official Twitter handle @MumbaiPolice by other Twitter users. Tarar herself later tweeted to the Mumbai police complaining about the tweet.
Police said on February 9 this year, user @DrGPradhan had sent a series of tweets to Ms Tarar, which were offensive and insulting in nature. He also went on to send an offensive tweet to her 16-year-old son. While Ms Tarar’s followers spoke out in her favour and lashed out at @DrGPradhan, Ms Tarar tweeted to the Mumbai Police as well as to the Twitter handles of Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi and the Ministry of External Affairs.
The Mumbai police responded to her tweet saying, “Please email us details of your complaint. We will consult the concerned authority and update you.”
An official with the Cyber Crime Cell of the Mumbai Police Crime Branch said, “Even if we do get the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the tweeter, he might not necessarily be based in Mumbai. Without an FIR, we cannot arrest him or take action against him.”
DCP (Detection) Dhananjay Kulkarni said, “The matter is being looked into and further course of action is being discussed.”
