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Chennai man arrested for online harassment of women animal welfare activists

CHENNAI: The Greater Chennai Police on Sunday arrested a man identified as Muralidharan Sivalingam, founder of the Indian Centre for Animal Rights and Education (INCARE), for allegedly subjecting a group of women animal-welfare volunteers to weeks of gender-based online harassment. He was booked under Section 79 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which deals with acts intended to insult the modesty of a woman, with relevant provisions of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act and the Information Technology Act. Police said he was produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody. The arrest followed a complaint filed by five women, all animal welfare volunteers from the city, who alleged that Muralidharan had subjected them to cyberstalking, intimidation, defamation and targeted harassment across social media platforms. In their complaint submitted to the Thiruvanmiyur police, the complainants stated that the accused had been tagging their names in posts on X and Facebook, misrepresenting their activities, provoking online mobs, and creating a hostile environment that endangered their safety. According to the complaint, the accused repeatedly used derogatory and misogynistic phrases to describe women activists, referred to them as mental patients and out of control, and circulated distorted interpretations of Supreme Court orders (particularly the recent orders related to the control of the stray dog population) to portray the complainants as lawbreakers. They also stated that the repeated tagging of officials and strangers had sparked negative comments from unknown users, instigating public hostility. Following preliminary investigation and collection of electronic evidence, including posts, metadata and screenshots submitted by the complainants, the police registered a case and arrested Muralidharan.