AHMEDABAD: A 59-year-old woman has filed a complaint with Vejalpur police alleging that she faced casteist abuse for rejecting a female friend’s proposal to enter into a relationship. The complainant said that the verbal assault was launched by a man who was a common friend.
The case was filed on Monday. The complainant, a resident of Vejalpur, said that she uploads videos of her acting and dance performances onto a social media platform.
On the platform, she had befriended a resident of Patan named Bharat Patel about two years ago. She said she considered him to be her younger brother. The complainant said that she and Patel used to post encouragement and appreciation for each other’s videos.
About a year ago, she befriended a woman called Lavina Singh on the social media platform. She said that later Patel also befriended Singh and the three of them engaged on the platform, giving kudos for one another’s videos.
Meanwhile, the complainant and Singh began interacting on video calls. “During one such call about a month ago, Singh proposed that we have a relationship,” the complainant said in her FIR. “I rejected the offer of the lesbian relationship and blocked her number.”
Singh then wrote a social media post accusing the complainant of betrayal for breaking off the friendship. Reacting to Singh’s post, Patel abused the complainant and her mother using casteist slurs.
The woman eventually approached Vejalpur police. Cops have filed a complaint against Patel under the Information Technology Act and the Prevention of Atrocities (Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes) Act.
