Trigger Warning: The following article contains mentions of sexual assault and rape.
Recently, in the going T20 World Cup, India lost to New Zealand. This was the second loss after India lost to Pakistan in their first match. While the loss is heartbreaking, an absolutely disgusting and despicable response to it has been the vicious trolling players have been subjected to.
And in an absolutely abhorrent act, rape threats were directed towards Indian team captain Virat Kohli’s daughter. She is ONLY 10 months old.
Apparently, the threats started after Kohli stood up for fellow cricketer Mohammad Shami, who was abused online after India’s defeat to Pakistan.
Multiple people posted the screenshot of the threat, and called it out on social media:
Allegedly, once the Twitter account tweeting the rape threats was called out, the user pretended to change his location to Pakistan. Apparently, as per a report by Quint, this isn’t the first time that the user has issued such threats, and later, changed his profile to shirk off suspicion.
It is beyond detestable that any person would think targeting a child is an acceptable response in any situation. Worse still is how commonplace something as abominable as rape threat has become on social media. In the past, Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra’s child was also targeted when Raj Kundra was arrested. This practice, of attacking children for the actions of their parents (over which they have little to no control) needs to stop.
As of now, the Delhi Women Commission has taken suo moto cognizance of the threats on Virat Kohli’s family. The account in question has been deleted.