For social media influencer Khyati Shree, cyber attacks had become such a daily struggle that she opened a dedicated Instagram account to reply to hateful comments. It went too far this time, when she received an acid attack threat, sent to her husband’s inbox. “Kindly tell your wife to follow a good dress especially in Karnataka or else I may splash acid on her face,” read the message. Shree’s husband Shahbaz Ansar took it to X immediately, calling for urgent action from the authorities. Soon enough, Nikith Shetty, the Bengaluru man who sent the message, was terminated from his job at Etios Services for five years. 

Speaking to TNM, Shree said that she is constantly subjected to such comments for her choice of clothes, and that she has compiled a lot of them on a separate account, where she names and shames the users publicly. “I do that sometimes when I feel like I am in the right mindset. But there is no way I can combat each and every comment and reply to those, file complaints, or do both,” she said. 

Coming together

Ansar said the recent acid attack threat was especially concerning. “The person has searched for her husband and texted me from his real account. What if it turned real? That’s why I immediately took to X and shared what happened,” he said. He had also tagged Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar and the Bengaluru police in his post on X.

The post soon went viral, and the couple received an outpouring of support. The couple said the people were kind and helpful, with several of their followers even tracking down Shetty’s profile on LinkedIn and sending emails to his employer. 

Shree also received personal messages from people who were not even her followers. “I received a lot of supportive messages from everyone including social media influencers, and even the ones who don’t regularly engage with me,” she said, adding that she felt encouraged reading all those messages.

In response, Etios Services terminated Shetty for a period of five years. Condemning the employee’s behaviour on their social media account, the company said this was “unacceptable” and that they have filed a case against him to ensure accountability for his actions.

Ansar said that even though the person got terminated, the threat still gives them anxiety. He said the Bengaluru City police had also contacted him after his post went viral, stating that he could file a complaint against the perpetrator. However, the couple don’t want to move ahead with a complaint, as they would be travelling and it would have been difficult for them to get trapped in the process of law. However, they definitely want Shetty to be warned by the police. “I had said this to the police, but they didn’t seem very keen to take immediate action,” said Ansar, who was formerly a full-time journalist and is now a freelancer.

Shree said this is not the first time her crusade against hate commenters had borne fruit. A few years ago, when she took a similar issue to social media, it had led to her bully facing counteraction at their workplace.

Disturbing comments

Many of the comments Shree receives on her posts and inbox are disturbing and worrying, and even includes rape threats and death threats that are very serious in nature.  

“Instead of doctor, she should have been raped,” reads one of the comments, referring to the recent rape and murder case in Kolkata. Many people also leave appalling comments on what she wears. “It is you people who instigate men to rape,” reads another comment, referring to her clothes. “These are very disturbing,” she said. 

Shree also shared an incident of moral policing she faced at the Udupi beach a few months ago. She said that the police stopped her from wearing a bikini, pointing towards some people who were at the beach. “The police said that I am not allowed to wear a bikini, and that the goons will beat me up if I wear the clothes I was wearing. They asked me to leave,” she recalled. She added that she and her husband couldn’t put up a strong opposition because they were tourists, and the ‘moral policers’ outnumbered them. “On top of that, the police were also on their side,” she said. 

Sharing her disappointment on how personal freedom still seems like a pipe dream for women, Shree said that it saddens her everytime she is forced to cover up for the sake of other people. “It’s as if I don’t have a right or a voice, and men will dictate how I should behave,” she said. But at the same time, she is not ready to give up her fight, she said. “I am well versed with the laws and personal freedom that the country offers. Otherwise, it would have been very easy to scare me or silence me.”