After Hindu Human Rights activist Rashmi Samant raised the voice of Hindu female victims whose videos were allegedly recorded by girls of the Muslim community in washrooms of a private institution, Udupi police launched a campaign on 24th of July to search her. It must be noted that Karnataka is currently ruled by Indian National Congress.

Advocate Adhitya Srinivasan, who represents Samant took to Twitter to inform about the sufferings Rashmi and her family are facing. He wrote ” At 8:00 PM this evening, a group of policemen visited the residence of my client, @RashmiDVS . As Rashmi was not at home at the time, it was her parents who were questioned by the police and repeatedly asked about Rashmi’s whereabouts. Multiple calls were made by the police to her father late in the evening to try and locate Rashmi. It’s clear that the police visited my client’s residence in connection with @RashmiDVS’ recent tweets condemning the secret video recording of Hindu girls in a college toilet. Rashmi is a staunch advocate for human rights and has consistently championed genuine causes at home and abroad. This includes the publication of a report on the anti-Hindu violence in Leicester in the House of Commons in the British Parliament.

RashmiDVS tweets are a fair and reasonable exercise of her freedom of speech and expression. As there is no constitutional basis to restrict her speech, the state police seems to have adopted the disturbing “chilling effect” approach, which BTW has no constitutional sanction. The Karnataka State Police turning up at @RashmiDVS’ doorstep isn’t going to somehow magically make the issue go away. The issue is already widely reported in the media (as it should be)! It is worrying that the authorities (who are responsible for securing the human rights of citizens), treat my client, @RashmiDVS, and her family in this manner for raising awareness about a crime that has come to light in their hometown

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