Thrissur: Assistant professor of Sree Kerala Varma College Deepa Nisanth has filed a complaint with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and state police chief Lokanath Behera over the threat she is facing from right wing activists after she posted a Facebook comment justifying a flex board put up by SFI unit of the college which had the replica of the painting of Saraswati by late M.F. Husain. She was receiving threats on social media and over phone ever since she posted her note on FB.
“The complaints were filed though e-mail to the chief minister and the state police chief and another complaint was filed with Thrissur West Police,” she told DC. “And cases have been registered for threatening and insulting me on social media by posting my morphed photos. My complaints were against FB groups ‘Outspoken’ and ‘Kaavippada’.”
The assistant professor said that after she filed her complaints, finance minister Dr Thomas Isaac, Palakkad MP M.B. Rajesh and Thrithala MLA V.T. Balram spoke to her expressing solidarity with her. “Now, there are attempts to file counter cases against me as circulating my morphed images did not make any impact on me. A complaint has been filed against me in Pathanamthitta allegedly for insulting religious sentiments,” she said.
Those complainants were mostly citing her usage ‘Hindu extremists’. She says that she used such an expression on her post as Hindu herself and she could not blame everyone who was a Hindu. The post was against those who take an ‘extremist’ view about their religion. Ms Nisanth had received threat from a person who belonged to FB group named ‘Hindu Reksha Sena’. The post calls to harm the assistant professor by pouring acid on the face or by any other means and not to kill her. The same post also threatened to harm her kids and relatives as well.
“The morphed pictures of mine circulated by certain groups have brought out the true colours of those who are leading the malicious campaign. They are upset over the nude paintings of a goddess, but they themselves post the morphed pictures of a woman,” she noted. Ms Deepa said she could not be bogged down by such threats and campaigns against her on social media. “Such threats will not affect my day-to-day life in anyway,” she told DC. “The police came to my house to provide protection but I sent them back. They are patrolling the area near the house.”
