Mumbai: Comedian Lodges Complaint After Receiving Obscene Messages on Instagram, Email

A 28-year-old woman comedian has lodged a complaint with the Bandra police after receiving obscene messages on Instagram and email from an unknown individual. The case has been registered under Section 78 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 67 of the Information Technology Act.

The comedian, who has 450,000 followers on Instagram, reported that two years ago she received a request from an Instagram account named "shawn_d_pilrai." Due to the high volume of such requests, she did not accept all of them. However, the account holder began following her.

About two months ago, the comedian’s father started receiving messages from the email "shawnpillai5@gmail.com." He marked these emails as spam. On July 27, a parcel from Amazon arrived at the father's address containing a purse. Assuming his daughter ordered it, he asked her, but she denied doing so. Upon checking the father's email account, they found obscene messages from the same email address.

Feeling humiliated after reading the messages, the comedian filed a complaint against the unknown person. A police officer stated that the accused sent obscene messages not only to the woman but also to her father's email ID, prompting the complaint.

The police are investigating the matter.