Mumbai Police arrests 36-year-old man over rape threats to Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi's daughter

Pic courtesy: Facebook

NEW DELHI: The Mumbai Police on Thursday arrested a man from Gujarat for allegedly issuing rape threats to the minor daughter of Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi. 

The accused, Girish Maheshwar, is a 36-year-old resident of Ahmedabad’s Bavala area. 

Maheshwar tweeted from his handle @GirishK1605 claiming that he would rape Chaturvedi's 10-year-old daughter. The tweet was later deleted.

"Goregaon police have registered an offence under section 509 (word, gesture intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC as well as relevant sections of the Information Technology Act and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act," said Deputy Commissioner of Police Deepak Deoraj.

Priyanka Chaturvedi later filed a complaint following which the Union Home Ministry directed Mumbai Police to register a case against an unidentified Twitter user for the rape threats.

Chaturvedi mentioned in her complaint that the Twitter troll, despite using an image of Lord Ram in the profile picture, didn't think twice before making such a threat.

"The offence committed by Maheshwari is serious in nature. We are probing why Maheshwari wrote such a tweet. Twitteratis should be aware that making and derogatory or offensive comments leads to Cognisable offence," said another police officer.

The incident comes days after External Affairs Minister and senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj became a target of hate messages on Twitter following a row over issuance of passport to an interfaith couple.