Stalk of the town

Stalker. The word would customarily conjure up the image of a man ceaselessly shadowing and harassing a woman. Change the set-up to the cyber world and reverse the roles. That’s what happened to Vijay Nair, the director and founder of OML (Only Much Louder), a new media enterprise in Mumbai. The link to a report on Nair’s Facebook Timeline gives a spine-chilling account of the young entrepreneur’s harrowing experience from November 2015 to February 2016 when he had to contend with a female stalker. Nair himself unmasked the perpetrator with the help of his security personnel and filed an FIR against ‘Geeta’, whose identity has so far been concealed in the case.

The case has thrown up a number of questions about the safety of men against female stalkers online and in person. To begin with, cyberstalking is not an offence under the IT Act.

Add to that the fact that a man who stalks a woman online or in person are charged under Section 354D but the section does not apply to male victims. Advocate Prashant Mali, International Cyber Law and Cyber Security Expert and Bombay high court lawyer, says, “I get cases where men are stalked by women and they even host some fake marriage photos with the men. Fewer or no cases are registered against women for stalking.”

Nair’s is not an isolated case but one of the very few where a man has openly spoken about being stalked by a woman. Fewer men are known to register complaints, fearing the risk of being ridiculed and having their masculinity judged. Like Meghna Pant, author and feminist, says, “Today, times are progressive and women are taught to speak up about what’s going wrong. On the contrary, men aren’t. They are taught to be masculine, alpha males, macho, that they are to defend the women around them, to not let their feelings out loud — all these things do not empower men. And so, they think if they do speak out about the abuse they go through, their masculinity will be judged.” But, for Nair, it’s not a gender thing at all. Like his Facebook post says, “This entire story is a criminal in nature and not about gender.”

Even if Nair maintains that it’s not a gender issue, the moot point is that the number of men registering complaints of female stalkers is disproportionately skewed. Like advocate Mali adds, “It’s more like a ratio of five to 95. Even police are not geared up to take these cases because of the mental bias,” he says. As things stand today, no charges or arrests have been made in Nair’s case so far. The perpetrator still attributed as Geeta. Nair has chosen not to reveal the identity of the stalker because as he confesses on his Twitter account he is, “Not a fan of online lynch mobs”, nor does he want her family and friends or organisation to get dragged into the mess.

As support for Nair has poured in from his friends and other well-wishers, the distress caused to him is palpable as his tweets to followers are automatically deleted once every month. As Meghna says, “What is further unfair is that as a man he cannot book his stalker under Section 354D of the IPC. This privilege is only for women! I’ve never heard of something so ludicrous. It ties into a patriarchal system that represses men sometimes.”

The need for the hour is to do away with the bias, according to Mali. “I feel the section 354D should start with ‘Any person who ...’ instead of ‘Any man...’. I am for having all cyber specific laws or laws which have online repercussion to be made gender neutral.”

Nair was unavailable for comments.

Inputs from Pooja Salvi