Srabanti lodges complaint against text harassment

Cyber bullying and text harassment have become rampant these days, especially in the Covid era, feels Srabanti. On September 8, the actress lodged a complaint with the Deputy High Commission for the People's Republic of Bangladesh, Kolkata, against a man from Bangladesh who has been sending all sorts of obnoxious messages to the actress for the past few months. Talking about the incident, Srabanti said, “I have been receiving all these dirty and obscene text messages for the past eight-nine months. Initially, I ignored but later I told my husband Roshan about it as the frequency of the messages kept increasing. He then suggested that I should write to the Deputy High Commissioner, Bangladesh, here so that some actions are taken. But I haven’t heard from them yet,” said Srabanti.

The actress shared the complaint letter with CT and there it was stated: My name is Srabanti Chatterjee an actress by profession. I have been into this profession for almost 24 years now, in this tenure I have done a lot of Movies in Bangladesh also promoting the culture and hospitality of the people there, I also have done enormous cultural programs for the country also. In fact, I have done programmes which has helped built the relation of India and Bangladesh.

However, it is with great sorrow I would like to lodge a formal grievance against an anonymous person using this phone number +8801980917046. This particular person has been abusing me almost every day over messages, initially I ignored these but when it became a daily business I couldn’t resist and I had to inform you all about the same.

I plead with folded hands to take necessary action against this particular person so that we feel safe and my trust for the government is still upheld. I will be waiting for your reply on this. Please treat this with utmost importance. I am also attaching the screenshots of the message. Sending you quite a few as there are many (sic)”

Srabanti feels the amount of such crimes has gone up during the lockdown as the usage of phones and the Internet has gone up manifold. “While some people are jobless, some are mentally unstable. They think they can get away with anything. I am sure that the officials from the Deputy High Commissioner, Bangladesh will take appropriate action against this man,” said Srabanti.

Elaborating on the problem, an official from Kolkata Police said, “Harassment through text messages may or may not be

cybercrime

. In case of a non-cybercrime case, one has to lodge a complaint to the local police station. Harassing a celebrity is not new. We have received similar complaints earlier also. However, it becomes problematic if the perpetrators are from outside of the country. For example, Facebook will not share details with us if the IP address is from abroad. It becomes difficult then.”