Gujarat: 26-Yr-Old Arrested Over Rape Threat To Comedian Agrima Joshua

A 26-year-old resident of Deep Darshan society in Atladra area of Vadodara, Gujarat, Shubham Mishra, was arrested on Sunday night, July 12, for uploading a video on Instagram where he threatened to rape stand-up comedian Agrima Joshua, who is based in Mumbai.

The arrest was made after the National Commission for Women (NCW) in New Delhi wrote to the chief of Gujarat Police, seeking action against Mishra.

In one of her acts, Agrima Joshua had joked about a reported statue of Shivaji Maharaj with GPS tracker, solar cells and laser rays. Joshua tweeted an apology after Shiv Sena leader and MLA, Pratap Sarnaik, called for her arrest after the video of the act went viral. It also stirred a public campaign against her.

A suo motu case was registered against Mishra at the Cyber Crime police station, following which he was booked under Indian Penal Code sections 294 (Obscenity), 504 (Intentionally insults to break public peace) 505 (Statements conducing to public mischief), 506 (Criminal intimidation) and 509 (Intending to insult modesty of a woman), as well as section 67 of the Information Technology Act (Transmission of electronic material which is lascivious or tends to deprave or corrupt people).

Agrima Joshua had also filed a complaint with the police against Mishra.

"We initially booked him under IPC Section 354 (a) for sexual harassment, but later dropped it because the original complainant is needed to file the case under this section. Since it is a suo motu case, we cannot add it. We also received communication from Pune Police stating that the original complainant has approached them to file a case against the accused who is in our custody," The Indian Express quoted Sandeep Chaudhary, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Zone 2 in Vadodara, as saying.

Vadodara Police claimed in a release that they found the video on actress Swara Bhaskar's Twitter profile, where she had shared it to draw the police's attention.

"Taking cognisance of the accused person's act, we booked him and arrested him today. The case is further being investigated by the inspector of Cyber Crime police station," said Jaydeepsinh Jadeja, DCP, Cyber Crime Cell of Vadodara Police.

The video went viral and was shared by popular stand-up comedians such as Kunal Kamra and other Bollywood actors, who sought both police action and NCW intervention against Mishra, who identifies himself as a "social worker".

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