An Indian investigative journalist known for her research on communal violence has experienced severe harassment after her personal phone number was posted by an X/Twitter account which directed its followers to harass her.
Rana Ayyub has received at least 200 calls, video calls and explicit WhatsApp messages since the post was published by the account @HPhobiaWatch on 8 November. She also received multiple requests for one-time passwords from various online commerce platforms, and she told CSW that followers of the account that doxed her subsequently posted screenshots of threatening texts that were sent to her.
According to Alt News, a fact-checking site, the person behind the account that doxed Ms Ayyub is Chandran Kumar, who also handles another account called the @TheSquind that exposes Hindu women who are in relationships with Muslim men. The report also states that Chandran Kumar worked at Varahe Analytics, a political consultancy organisation hired by India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as a senior content analyst.
Ms Ayyub has been facing similar harassment for several years now, particularly since the release of her 2016 book 'Gujarat Files' which exposed the role of the then Chief Minister of Gujarat and current Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 Gujarat riots, which are considered one of the worst cases of communal violence since India’s independence.
Ms Ayyub has been a victim of rape threats, death threats, intimidation by officials and also subjected to several criminal investigations. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Ms Ayyub was followed by security personnel and alleged local intelligence throughout a four-day reporting trip to Manipur in early October. Security personnel reportedly told her that they were ordered to follow her by a 'higher office' and that it was for her safety, and Ms Ayyub revealed that she was even monitored to the point of being followed to the washroom.
After the 8 November incident, Ms Ayyub filed a complaint with the Cyber Police Station in Mumbai. A First Information Report (FIR), which is required for the police to open an investigation, was registered on 9 November but no arrests have been made yet.
CSW’s Founder President Mervyn Thomas said: ‘CSW calls on the Indian authorities to ensure that all who are complicit in the doxing and subsequent harassment of Rana Ayyub are brought to justice. The BJP have created an environment in which critical voices are stifled and silenced, whilst the extremists that target them enjoy complete impunity. This must end and the international community must hold the Indian government to account for the manner in which it has allowed and in some cases actively enabled the erosion of democracy, justice and human rights in the country.’