A few days after her tweets on azaan (the Islamic call to prayer) stirred controversy and sparked a debate on social media, Indian actress and singer Suchitra Krishnamoorthi has filed a case against social media accounts that replied to her tweets with abuses and threats.

Following this, Mumbai Police have registered a case against four individuals under IPC Section 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) and Section 67A of the IR Act, 2000 (punishment for publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act).

1/2 Hello Ms Suchitra. We have already forwarded this to the cyber police station. — Mumbai Police (@MumbaiPolice) July 26, 2017

Background

On 22 July, Krishnamoorthi, in a series of tweets, opined, “came home at 4.45 am 2 most aggressive/ ear shattering call of azaan. Nothing more lowlife & dumb than such extreme imposed religiousity … i wake up at Brahmamuhurt of my own accord & do my prayers & riyaz.& yoga. I dont need public loudspeakers to remind me of my God or my duty … nobody objects to azaan or prayers during decent hours. But to be wakung up entire neighbourhood at 5 am is not civilized.”

came home at 4.45 am 2 most aggressive/ ear shattering call of azaan. Nothing more lowlife & dumb than such extreme imposed religiousity — Suchitra (@suchitrak) July 23, 2017

i wake up at Brahmamuhurt of my own accord & do my prayers & riyaz.& yoga. I dont need public loudspeakers to remind me of my God or my duty https://t.co/7rPSzG1EfB — Suchitra (@suchitrak) July 23, 2017

nobody objects to azaan or prayers during decent hours. But to be wakung up entire neighbourhood at 5 am is not civilized https://t.co/PBT94NtuGN — Suchitra (@suchitrak) July 23, 2017

Krishnamoorthi’s tweets reignited the debate over the azaan was an example of forced religiosity and forcing the entire public to put up with it was anti-secular or an embrace of multiculturalism.

Trolling and abusing polluted the discussion over Krishnamoorthi’s tweets

Besides the debate, however, there were numerous trolls who mocked, insulted, abused and threatened Krishnamoorthi. These tweets were highly sexist and abusive in nature; the least hateful among these tweets called Krishnamoorthi a “call girl” and an “attention seeker”.

Look at these perverts! Feel sorry for my India -with this kind of attitude towards women its no wonder we've become rape capital of d world pic.twitter.com/Hteg0IXRM8 — Suchitra (@suchitrak) July 25, 2017

Not one to ignore the online abuse, Krishnamoorthi took the case to the Mumbai Police. She tweeted to the Mumbai Police’s Twitter handle and received a quick response from them, after which she filed a complaint at her local station in Mumbai, posting a picture of herself in front of it. “Thank you Mumbai Police, you are the best,” she wrote.

https://twitter.com/suchitrak/status/890108920928378881

“Based on her complaint, police registered a case under IPC sections 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) and 67 (a) (punishment for publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act), against four persons,” a senior police official said.

Three months after Sonu Nigam stirred controversy around azaan

Krishnamoorthi is not the first public figure to have voiced their opposition to untimely azaans. In April, singer Sonu Nigam had tweeted regarding the same. Nigam’s tweet about being woken by the azaan every morning, calling it forced religiousness, created quite a storm on Twitter. He also raised the question on noises by temple & gurudwara but that didn’t attract much attention.

While a lot of people supported him, a few others spoke about the inconvenience caused by the noise generated during the celebration of Hindu festivals also. Whichever side people take on this issue; it is pretty clear that the existing rules regarding the use of loudspeakers at public places (including religious places) are rarely followed (more here).