SHILLONG: Women activists in the city have asked the state government and the Police Department to effectively implement the existing criminal laws to strictly deal with cases of harassing of women and girls on social media such as Facebook and WhatsApp.
The leaders of Thma U Rangli Juki (TUR) and Civil Society Women’s Organisation (CSWO) raised concern after a woman was victimised on social media recently.
Pdianghun Mawlong from Byrnihat in Ri Bhoi district was one of the victims whose photographs with her husband were uploaded along with an explicit sex video which was circulated on social networking sites.
The miscreants tried to insinuate that Pdianghun was the female seen in the said video.
The couple, who had to go through difficult times, decided to seek justice by filing an FIR with the Umiam police station on May 10 and urged that the accused be booked as per the law.
Pdianghun told reporters that she came to know about her photographs being misused on social media when she got a call from a friend and immediately on May 10, she and her husband went and filed an FIR.
“I want the police to take stern action and ensure this does not happen to others,” Pdianghun added.
She wanted her name to be published in the write-up as she wanted to clarify on the matter. The victim, who broke down while speaking to the media, also said the incident had created a big misunderstanding in which her husband’s relatives without knowing that everything was fake had threatened her for allegedly misusing Tyngkan clan on Facebook.
Her husband, Badondor, said on searching, he found that the explicit video was in fact uploaded on Facebook last year and miscreants with malicious intentions took his wife’s photos and circulated the same through WhatsApp.
TUR leader Angela Rangad, who came out to support the couple, expressed concern over the fact that women are made soft targets.
Rangad further stated that the Meghalaya State Women Commission should pro-actively monitor groups who are in the habit of abusing women on social platforms. She said not only the people who are behind circulating such lies but the ones who shared should also be punished as per the law.
CSWO chief Agnes Kharshiing asked the police to track all those who shared the video to get to the culprits.
