A 20-year-old woman named Ankita Shukla has shared the ordeal of online harassment that she has been facing by a group of men, allegedly associated with the BJP IT cell. Fed up with the continuous harassment and police inaction despite her written complaint, Ankita had to open a Twitter account to have her voice heard.
In a series of Tweets, Ankita had shared the lewd messages, facebook posts and chats where a group of men, namely Ayush Vedant, Kunwar Anmol, Shrikant Rathore and others have been hounding her. Ankita has shared that she had filed a written complaint regarding the online harassment at Cybercrime cell, Jamshedpur and still has received no help.
Please save me!
I’m on the verge of giving up on life, please rescue me @smritiirani @SmritiIraniOffc @DCWDelhi @NCWIndia I’m being sexually, mentally, emotionally harassed every single minute by Ayush Vedant and his group. I cannot take it anymore. pic.twitter.com/Z674543kRy
— Ankita Shukla (@Ankita_Shukla_) September 29, 2019
Ankita has shared that she has been getting regular rape threats, body shaming memes and lewd sexually offensive messages on facebook targeted towards her by the men and their friends.
I’m getting regular rape threats. This group on Facebook is violating all social values and now I’m in that mental trauma when sometimes I feel that suicide is a better option for someone like me. A group which consists people of age 18-40 is targetting me. pic.twitter.com/nKwtgZFUgt
— Ankita Shukla (@Ankita_Shukla_) September 29, 2019
Ankita has shared that she has been living under immense mental stress, embarrassment and fear due to the constant threats of rape and molestation by these men. She has stated that the same group of men had earlier targeted an NRI woman named Rupa Murthy and now they have been targeting her.
“Opener” for them means “the one who is first to have sex with any gril whom they target and the rest follow”. Yes there are girls and women they have harassed earlier (@rupamurthy1 ) but they survived these harrassments somehow. I’m not that capable to survive such filth. pic.twitter.com/LY4jvNVow6
— Ankita Shukla (@Ankita_Shukla_) September 29, 2019
Ankita’s tweet thread has many threatening messages, lewd remarks and sexually offensive statements that Ayush Vedant and their group had sent her. She stated further that unable to take it any more, she has been contemplating suicide. Ayush Vedant, Ankita has claimed, has no fear of law and has even threatened her that he is connected to powerful people and is not afraid of her police complaint.
Sharing her ordeal with images, screenshots and details of the harassment she has been subjected to, Ankita has sought help from the Woman and Child Development minister Smriti Irani, NCW chairperson Rekha Sharma and others.
After Ankita’s tweets went viral, The National Commission of Women has taken cognisance of the matter. In a later tweet, Ankita stated that NCW chairperson Rekha Sharma had talked to her personally and has assured all help.
Twitter users have later pointed out that Ankita’s harasser Ayush Vedant may have been associated with the BJP IT cell. Some images have surfaced where he is seen with BJP leaders. However, there has been no official confirmation yet. Popular right-wing portal ‘The Frustrated Indian’ has acknowledged that Ayush Vedant was an occasional contributor to their portal and he was fired two years back due to his wayward behaviour.
