Women’s panel seeks report on post about Urmila Matondkar

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Women’s Commission has sought a report from the Pune police in connection with derogatory posts on social media about actress Urmila Matondkar, who also contested the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections as a Congress candidate.

A 57-year-old man was booked by the Pune police for allegedly making objectionable remarks about Ms Matondkar on social media.

In a strong message to the accused Dhananjay Kudtarkar, the state women’s commission said that he should be booked under section 12(2) and 12(3) of the Maharashtra State Commission for Women Act, 1993.

Dr Manjusha Molwane, deputy secretary of the state women’s commission, said, “In the social media post, extremely vulgar and derogatory remarks have been made about Ms Matondkar. The intent of such remarks is to malign the image of the actress and shame her.”

The Pune police had booked Mr Kudtarkar, a resident of Pune, after a MNS office-bearer red-flagged his post.

A case was registered against Mr Kudtarkar under section 354 (A) 1 (4) (making sexually coloured remarks; shall be guilty of the offence of sexual harassment) and relevant sections of the IT Act.

While the police has not made any arrests yet, officials said that the matter was being investigated.

The Congress' move to field Ms Matondkar against a sitting MP of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Gopal Shetty, with an objective to win fans' votes failed miserably in 2019 Lok sabha elections as the Rangeela actress lost by a margin of almost 4.65 lakh votes, which was the highest defeat margin in Maharashtra.

In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress had fielded another Bollywood superstar Govinda for the Mumbai North seat against stalwart Ram Naik. The strategy worked out for them when Govinda defeated Mr Naik. However, the citizens chose BJP candidate Mr Shetty above Ms Matondkar this election.