The Kerala police on Saturday took into custody a Muslim person named, Noorudeen Sheikh from Wayanad, alleged to be the key tormentor, for launching a cyber attack on a 19-year-old, college girl Hanan Hamid, who sold fish at Thammanam near Kochi after her class hours to support her mentally-ill mother and brother.

Hanan had grabbed a lot of attention on the internet after she was featured in a newspaper, the Malayalam daily- Manorama, as a student who sold fish after college hours. Soon after some people on Facebook started targetting her with vicious abuse baselessly alleging that she was only putting up an act. The Union Minister for Tourism Alphons Joseph Kannanthanam stepped forward to extend his support, condemning the abuse.

However, it was after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s Facebook post supporting Hamid on Friday that the police registered a case against the cyber bullies.

Noorudeen Sheikh, the man who did a Facebook live claiming Hanan was a fraud, is being questioned and an FIR has been registered against him, a police officer said. He has been booked under various sections of the IT Act, besides provisions attracting non-bailable offences.

Sheikh who was the first to take selfies with Hamid when he came to know of her struggles, later went hammer and tongs against her and posted the pictures questioning her condition, after she was also seen in a few pictures with superstar Mohanlal. Soon Sheikh’s post went viral and Hamid was slammed as “a fake and doing all she did only to impress superstar Mohanlal in order to land a role with his son Pranav Mohanlal in an upcoming film.”

A happy Hanan who dreams of pursuing MBBS only resorting to these odd jobs to take care of her mentally ill mother and brother, on hearing about the arrest said, “Now, I have realised that with the support I am getting from the government and my college, I have got so many guardians.”

Bullying, it seems, is no longer restricted to the pervasive schools, colleges, playgrounds or parks. This global menace has spread its tentacles over to the big, wide world of technology making it more dangerous than before. Cyber-bullying, as it is known, can occur anytime, anywhere and be targetting almost everyone.