As the CJP protests gathered momentum, a parallel campaign began online against some of the women who participated in them. Accounts targeting the protesters circulated their videos, hurled abuse at them and published screenshots containing sensitive personal information, turning online trolling into outright doxxing.

Many of those targeted had either spoken to the media during the protests or posted reels and other content on social media with abusive language against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Several Right-wing handles subjected them to sustained trolling and abuse while putting their private information in the public domain.

The most alarming instance involved a young woman from Noida. A clip of her using expletives against Modi during the Delhi protests went viral, following which Delhi-based Supreme Court lawyer Smriti Singh Chandel filed a zero FIR against her, invoking charges of defamation and “intentional insult to provoke breach of peace”.

Chandel also posted a photo of the FIR complaint on her Instagram handle, which revealed the home address of the accused individual. She also posted a video of men outside Gautam Budh Nagar police station holding the complaint copy and claiming they had access to the personal details of the female. Police had “assured” them, they said, that she would be arrested within days. 

Young Female Protester Bears The Brunt

Confusion over the female’s age — whether or not she is a minor — and her name further problematised the case. After Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted a video saying that he “forgave” everyone who had abused him during the protest, the female protester posted an apology video, admitting her mistake, apologising to him and to the country. She claimed she was “influenced” by others useing abusive language against the PM.

As reports began to suggest that the protester was in fact a minor, responding to allegations of doxxing a minor, trolls claimed that the girl in the apology video was not the same as the girl in the viral video. Several Right-wing influencers took to X to claim that a minor girl was being used to cover up for the actual 25-year-old protester, so that POCSO cases could be registered. Some even claimed she was using her younger sister for sympathy while some users went to the length of comparing facial features to prove their point.

The case significantly blew up when mainstream media aired her alleged name and face on national television. Times Now amplified the claim that the protester was a 25-year-old woman named Ruchika Singh. NDTV’s Shiv Aroor made the same claim, showing her face and revealing her identity.

CNN-News18 also made the same claim, while exposing her face; the channel on July 31 reported how they have “tracked down” the girl to her society complex in Noida, from where she had reportedly absconded. Citing repeated visits from the police as well as from strangers, the single mother-daughter duo reportedly had to leave their rented accommodation and shift elsewhere.

To make matters worse, on July 31, CNN-News 18 also claimed to have gained access to “exclusive voices” from the female protesters life that “nobody else has”. In an outright case of breach of privacy, a reporter from the organisation reached the “beauty salon” where the girl had allegedly learnt nail art till the month of June.

The reporter speaks at length with the owner of the nail salon, probing over the girl’s association with the salon. The owner mentions that the girls name was not Ruchika Singh, as was being claimed by the media. He also claimed that on repeated failures to furnish her identity details, specifically her Aadhaar Card, the girl was reportedly asked by the management to not come back.

In an interview with ABP News, the victim of this doxxing episode clarified that her name is not Ruchika Singh and neither is she 25 years old.

The girl, who stated her age to be 15, reportedly faced constant harassment and threats from people in the neighbourhood, including threats of “murder and rape“. The mother, who also appears in the ABP interview, urges the public to stop the relentless abuse against her daughter.

The mother stated that despite the “PM forgiving her (daughter)”, an army of anti-social elements and police were repeatedly visiting their residence, which they were eventually forced to vacate given the increasing threat to their privacy and survival. “What will you get from harassing a child?” the mother asked, while extending gradtitude to Modi for granting her daughter “jeevandaan”. She repeatedly implores Modi and the masses to “let them live in peace and return to their home”.

Notably, Chandel, by her own admission, had “learnt” about the young girl’s name and details from social media users. The police complaint as well as the FIR went on to mention her as 25-year-old while the girl and her mother maintained that she is 15. “There are people claiming that it is her younger sister who has made the apology; they are saying I have hidden my daughter. This is bizarre; why would any mother throw her child into this vicious cycle of threats?” the mother said to The Print. 

‘Arrest These Women’: Online Mob Justice

This was not an isolated incident. Several Right-wing accounts on X were determined to identify and locate female protesters. Retired IAS officer Sanjay Dixit, who runs the Hindutva propaganda page Jaipur Dialogues, specifically targeted women protesters who had allegedly abused Modi. In one of his posts, he shared a collage of twelve such women, urging the Delhi Police to “arrest them”. 

Jaipur Dialogues had also shared the Noida protester’s video, claiming that she was not a minor but actually 25 years old.

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Popular Right-wing influencer account @KreatelyMedia shared a video of three kids who are seen using expletives against Modi in an Instagram reel. The children do not seem older than 5-7 years of age. The video, in which the Instagram ID of the original uploader can be seen, has been up for over ten days.

Another handle @BesuraTaansane posted a video of a seemingly young girl from the protest. The protesters had satirically hosted Modi’s tehrvi, a post-funeral memorial service, which she had shown in a video uploaded on her Instagram. Her later videos were subsequently tracked and amplified by these accounts.

The same handle amplified two similar videos from the protest. Both showed young girls, possibly minors, sloganeering. The post was a direct call to identify and target the minors in the videos. The post read: “Watching young children (mostly girls) mouthing hardcore abuses at PM Modi and his deceased mother, happily recorded and made viral, shows how we are collapsing as a society…These faces should be splashed all over social media so their colleges know what they’re doing.”

One of the girls in the first video had been identified and had to tender an apology as well — something that the Right-wing handles welcomed. 

‘We Will Kill You, Rape You’

Another case that gained attention is that of yoga instructor Shraddha Singh, who had made a video targeting Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel at the protest site. In the Instagram reel she posted, the soundtrack of a cleaning product advertisement had been used. In it, as the narrator says, “blue is for the toilet,” she gestures to blue-clad RAF personnel. When it switches to “red is for the bathroom,” she points to her own red t-shirt.

After the video went viral, she alleged facing “rape and death threats from strangers on her social media”, despite having deleted the video in an hour’s time and issuing an apology. In an interview with BBC Hindi, Singh reveals that even after her public apology, the abuse did not stop, to the extent that even her friends and her mother were harassed both on social media and beyond. She expressed fears about not being able to “fit into society” after the extent of backlash. 

According to her testimony to media outlet Scroll, BJP supporters discovered a much older post, spotted the number plate of her car and used it to track down her mobile number and address. “Some called and said, ‘we will kill you the moment we meet you, we will rape you,’” she alleged.

In another case, user @CommanMan777589 shared a video of a young girl, whom he claimed to be around 10-12 years old, and therefore a minor. In the video, the girl suggests that Modi should be hit with a sandal rather than verbally abused.

Sharing this video while exposing the identity of a minor on a public platform, including her name, and the city she lived in, the user tagged Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, urging him to block “kids across social media” and calling for action against the parents of children making such videos. The post further argued that “Gen Z is losing track due to social media” and appealed to the Prime Minister to “fix it.” 

Rhiya Ahir, the Mumbai-based woman who grabbed national attention during the CJP solidarity protest in Shivaji Park after videos and images of her stopping a police van that had detained protesters, went viral, alleged that she had been subjected to sustained online harassment.

Speaking at a press conference alongside Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, she urged the media to shift its narrative and identify her not as the woman who “stopped the police van” but as the woman who “stopped the unlawful detention of 20 children”.

“What I did has led to continuous harassment,” Ahir said, adding that she describes the abuse as “harassment and trolling because it is a crime”. She also stated that although she filed a complaint on July 27, no FIR had been registered as of August 5.

Let’s See Who Gives Them Jobs: Arnab Goswami

An Arnab Goswami debate on Republic TV questioned whether simply apologising does away with the grave injustices of directing abuse and profane language towards the Prime Minister and other state officials.

Goswami suggests that these protesters should not merely be forgiven, but also that serious charges be filed against them so that they learn a lesson. As many as 10 videos of protesters and social media influencers rendering their apologies were broadcast by Republic TV, paired with the respective viral clips which he claimed were “obscene”. “Let them face the law, so that the legal cases against them are so strong…Let me see who gives them employment, who gives them jobs, who engages with them…,” Goswami asserts. 

On a Republic Bharat show, Goswami reiterates his demands in Hindi: “Inhe na naukri miley, na maafi miley. Inhe na mauka miley, na maafi miley. Inhe chhora na jaaye, legal tarike se.” He repeats that these influencers, despite having apologised for their controversial videos, should not be forgiven, since they are “anti-Sanatan, anti-Modi, anti-Bharat”, comprising what he calls the “Tukde Tukde Gang.”

Also Read: Hunt for a ‘global toolkit’: Republic blamed everyone from US deep state to Greta Thunberg for CJP stir

Republic Bharat showed footage of a youth being slapped on camera and being asked to apologise for his crude remarks on Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, besides broadcasting personal information of protesters including their names and visuals.

Times Now also interviewed Shraddha Singh, where the anchor does not address the social media hounding at all, but instead presses the influencer to take accountability of her mistake as well as that of others. NDTV India also interviewed her, where, similarly, her allegations of harassment and doxxing were dismissed.