Dil Bechara actor Swastika Mukherjee thanks Kolkata Police for taking action against rape, acid attack threats

Actor Swastika Mukherjee has thanked Kolkata Police’s cybercrime department for taking prompt action against those who have been giving her rape and acid attack threats after she was falsely quoted by a journalist saying that “suicides are now in fashion” in the wake of Sushant Singh Rajput's death last month

In a lengthy statement posted on her Twitter on Friday, Swastika, who features alongside Sushant in his final film “Dil Bechara”, said days after her co-actor’s untimely demise there was a media report that falsely quoted her following which she was flooded with online rape and acid attack threats.

The actor had lodged a complaint, regarding the threats with the Kolkata Police on June 29 following which a probe was launched.

The Kolkata Police on Friday arrested two people, one from West Bengal's Hooghly for posting threats of rape and acid attack to Swastika, and a journalist from Purba Burdwan for allegedly publishing a news report on his website attributing a fake quote to the actor following Sushant’s death.

"Cyber bullying is not acceptable. Rape threats, acid attack threats are heinous crime & it needs to be addressed. It’s time people think before attacking someone because there will be repercussions. Thank you @KolkataPolice cyber crime department for taking such prompt action," Swastika posted on Twitter.

The 39-year-old actor said online threats cause mental agony and harm to the victim and their families.

"Many of us, irrespective of our gender, face vicious cyber-attacks which can sometimes snowball into real threats. At the least, this causes a great deal of mental agony and harm to the individuals and their families. I would urge people to muster courage and report such situations to law enforcement,” she said.