KOCHI: The Kochi City Police on Saturday arrested a person who trolled and cyber-bullied Hanan Hamid, the college student who became a talking point after news reports on her selling fish became viral in the social media. According to the officers, Nooruddin Shaik, a native of Wayanad was taken into custody by a team led by Ernakulam Central Assistant Commissioner K Laljy. A detailed interrogation of the accused is underway.
Based on a directive from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), the Kochi city police registered a case against Nooruddin Shaik who was the first of the lot to come out with an FB post shaming her under section 67 of IT Act, section 509 and 34 of IPC and 120 (O) of Kerala Police Act on Friday.
Earlier, the sleuths recorded the statements of Hanan, who has been undergoing treatment at a hospital in Kothamangalam. "Cases will be registered against all those who had made derogatory comments against Hanan on social media under Nooruddin's video post and those who shared the video", said a police officer.
Hanan comes from a family of an alcoholic father and a mentally-depressed mother. But despite such troubling circumstances, in order to fund her education and support her family, she sells fish after college, acts in films as junior artists and takes tuition classes for small kids. The 21-year-old’s determination in the face of hardships brought her laurels after her story was published by a Malayalam newspaper. After her story was reported, online abusers went berserk on social media, trolling Hanan. They alleged that the story was part of a publicity campaign for Mohanlal’s film.