Actor Siddharth has been summoned by the Chennai city police in connection with a defamation case over his recent comment on badminton player Saina Nehwal in response to her tweet on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s security breach incident in Punjab.
“We’ve actually received two complaints,” said Chennai Police Commissioner Shankar Jiwal, on Thursday, explaining that one of these is not a criminal case but a defamation complaint. “We only need his statement,” the commissioner added, confirming that the actor has been summoned by the police.
The issue dates to early January, when Nehwal had tweeted condemning the incident in Punjab’s Ferozepur, where Modi’s convoy was reportedly blocked on a flyover, causing a security breach for a brief period of time. Retweeting Nehwal’s comment, Siddharth, in a now-deleted tweet, wrote, “Subtle cock champion of the world… Thank God we have protectors of India. Shame on you #Rihanna.”
Soon after this, prominent personalities such as actor and BJP member Khushbu and singer Chinmayi Sripada, criticised Siddharth’s tweet. The National Commission for Women (NCW) too called the actor out for his “lewd comment” on Nehwal. The NCW also termed the comment “misogynist and outrageous to the modesty of a woman amounting to disrespect and insult to the dignity of women on social media platforms” and wrote to the Maharashtra and Chennai police urging investigation and the registration of an FIR in the matter.
As the issue escalated, Siddharth posted a follow-up to his previous tweet to clarify his comment and said, “nothing disrespectful was intended.” He also subsequently issued a public apology to Nehwal.
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Nehwal acknowledged Siddharth’s apology and said, “He said something about me first and then apologised. I don’t even know why it went so viral. I was surprised to see myself trending on Twitter. Happy that Siddharth has apologised.”
However, the actor has still been facing heat over the incident.
It is to be noted that Siddharth was previously booked by the Cyber Crime Wing of the Hyderabad police for his comments, based on the complaint of a social activist named Prerna over the same issue. The Hyderabad police booked the actor under Sections 509 of the IPC (insulting the modesty of a woman) and 67 of the Information Technology Act (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form).