Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore

Bangalore, Aug 3: Writer and columnist V R Bhat, who has been accused of threatening social activist N Prabha Belavangala with rape in a post on Facebook, was arrested by the Chandra Layout police here on Saturday August 2.

Prabha, state secretary of NGO Bharat Jnana Vignyana Samiti, had posted a status update on Facebook stating that a great deal of contributions were made by the lower strata of people towards development of a nation, but the upper strata of certain religious sects took the credit. In her complaint, she said that she want to evoke a healthy and enlightened debate about people through this post.

In reply to her post, V R Bhat, said to be an RSS man, allegedly issued a threat to Prabha, stating, "such activists (like Prabha) should be dragged by their hair and raped to correct them."

The reply also stated, "What do you (Prabha) know about Sanatana Dharma? People like you want saffron flag banned wherever they see it. Poor things, what do they know, they think what they know is truth; things will be all right if women like you are dragged by their hair and raped."

Following this post, Prabha lodged complaints against V R Bhat in different police stations, and soon after, V R Bhat deleted the post, but not before it went viral. The alleged threat made headlines in the media and several organizations condemened Bhat's statements and demanded his arrest.

Meanwhile, Bhat went absconding, and police formed four teams to hunt him down. After an exhaustive search in various places including Uttara Kannada where he hails from, he was finally nabbed in Yeswantpur.

Bhat has been booked under IPC sections 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (criminal intimidation), 354 A (sexual harassment), 354 D (stalking) and 109 (abetment) and 66 A of IT Act (sending offensive messages through communication service).

While there was public outrage against Bhat, the RSS in a statement insisted that he was not a member of the right wing. "The said person has no responsibility of RSS. His remarks were nothing to do with RSS and RSS will never endorse such irresponsible and socially unacceptable comment. RSS completely dissociates from the said controversy as it has nothing to do with it," Prof B V Sreedharswamy, joint general secretary said in an official statement.