Swathi Vadlamudi

Hyderabad

Telangana

HRDA has issued an urgent appeal to the National Human Rights Commission of India on 17 April regarding the abuse, intimidation, death threats to Ms. Swathi Vadlamudi for circulating her cartoon in the context of the recent spate of rapes. Ms. Vadlamudi is a journalist based in Hyderabad and associated with national daily ‘The Hindu’.

On April 10, 2018, she published a cartoon which made a reference to the Hindu Gods, Ram and Sita, in the context of the current spate of abductions and rapes of women and widespread protests in India. After sharing this cartoon on her social media pages, she received numerous intimidating online abuses, including threats to kill her. On April 14, 2018, the Hindu Sanghatan filed a police complaint against her and Mr. Shabbir Ahmed, who shared her cartoon, at the Saidabad police station in Hyderabad under Section 295 (a) of the Indian Penal Code.