With the advent of social media, it has become easier for anti-social elements to disseminate malicious and fake images or videos on social media against innocent citizens.
The target of these anti-social elements is often the dignity of ordinary citizens, especially women.
So, what can an ordinary citizen do in such scenarios?
This Kerala woman took the old-fashioned route of following due process.
Recently, a 20-year-old college-going woman from Aluva in Ernakulam district found out that her fiancé had called off their wedding.
Why was it called off?
Her fiancé had read a WhatsApp forward with an image of a woman and her classmate accompanied by a voice message claiming that the couple in the photo were going to elope. The voice message went onto suggest that her parents needed to be notified about their alleged plan.
This malicious WhatsApp forward not only spread through her neighbourhood but also made its way abroad where her fiancé works.
Reading this message, the fiancé decided to call off the wedding even though the two had been engaged for a couple of months.
Enraged, the woman decided to track down the rumour monger and filed a complaint with the local police. After a brief investigation, the police managed to track down a 35-year-old man from Chelakkulam village in the same district.
The 35-year-old man had allegedly found the woman and her classmate standing at a bus stop at Aluva a week ago and decided to click their photograph, following which he also recorded a voice message. The accused claims he mistook the woman for someone else and spread the message on social media, according to NewsBytes.
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We do not know whether the woman and her fiancé have reconciled following this expose. However, what the woman did was to stand up for herself, follow due process and ensure that the alleged rumour monger was nabbed, and has been charged under relevant sections of the IT Act.