Netizen Kishore K Swamy arrested by Cyber Crime, Chennai for harassment of women on social media; gets bail

Kishore K Swamy got arrested on Monday, after Tamil Nadu Women Journalists Forum filed a complaint in July 2019 against him. He is an avid AIADMK and BJP supporter on social media, and claims he is a “political analyst.” One of the complainants has written on Twitter previously on how he was engaged and supported by various BJP IT Cell members. He got bail within a day.

According to a report published in The News Minute, Cyber Crimes, Chennai arrested him on the multitude of complaints received against him over the course of the last year. Tamil Nadu Women Journalists Forum said they had observed the man over the years but chose to ignore him initially as he seemed like just an attention-seeker. However, within last year, they got so many complaints that they could not ignore him any further.

The complaints narrated at least three different instances in which Kishore had insulted women journalists on social media. He also indulged in character assassination of these women journalists and instigated people from a particular religion against them.

The Cyber Cell filed an FIR against him under sections 354D (stalking), 509 (Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC and section 4 (Harassment of Women) of Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Women Harassment Act, 1998.

When representatives from the Forum approached the Commissioner of Police to file a complaint, they were told that there were already quite a few complaints against Kishore from other journalists. “The Commissioner had assured us of action against him,” Jaya Bathuri, the Coordinator of the Tamil Nadu Women Journalists Forum added.

Kishore K Swamy has switched camps multiple times over the last few years, coming as an ardent AIADMK supporter, then shifting loyalties entirely to Sasikala, finally being a TTV Dhinakaran loyalist and then, hitting home with his unwavering BJP and AIADMK support. Multiple news channels continued to call Kishore K Swamy as an 'expert guest’ though journalists working with these organisations had themselves complained of the very same thing.

Sonia Arunkumar, another representative of Tamil Nadu Women Journalists Forum was quoted by The News Minute as saying that Kishore is a serial offender who has been posting abusive posts about those in media and media organisations for many years. “He posts about everybody. Men, women, senior journalists, everybody. We wanted to convey that we will not take it lightly and that’s why we decided to lodge a formal complaint,” she was quoted as saying.

“For instance, at present if you check it is the BJP supporters who are giving more mileage to his tweets and propagating it. This emboldens him. As a party, they could have at least desisted from encouraging him or giving him any kind of validation. His posts have given young women journalists, who are new to the field, immense mental agony,” she added.