Kerala man’s death: Trial by social media

Trigger warning: This nonfiction contains references to intersexual maltreatment and suicide. Please usage your discretion successful deciding if, when, and wherever to read.

It was U. Deepak’s day connected January 17. The 42-year-old income executive, who worked astatine a garment company, lived with his parents successful a two-storey location successful Govindapuram, a mates of kilometres from Kozhikode metropolis successful Kerala. He had promised his father, Choyi Ullattuthodi, and mother, K. Kanyaka, that helium would instrumentality them to Guruvayur temple, an past Hindu tract dedicated to Lord Krishna and fashionable among pilgrims. For the intimately knit household of three, whose lives were rooted successful routine, specified pilgrimages were not rare, Kanyaka says.

Deepak had instructed his parents to beryllium acceptable by the day for the travel that would instrumentality astir 2 hours. He said they would permission erstwhile helium returned from work. But erstwhile helium came home, his parents realised that helium was not himself.

“He was precise upset,” Kanyaka recalls. “He didn’t eat. Without immoderate explanation, helium said, ‘Amma, we volition spell to Guruvayur later’.” Kanyaka kept asking him what had happened, but Deepak did not respond. He unopen himself wrong his room.

That night, citing incidents of theft successful the area, Deepak asked his parents to adjacent their chamber door. They did arsenic they were told. The adjacent morning, they recovered Deepak dormant successful his room.

For Ullattuthodi and Kanyaka, the find was shocking particularly since they saw nary informing and nary disposable signs of despair. “We couldn’t recognize wherefore helium took his ain life,” says Kanyaka, her dependable cracking.

A time earlier, unbeknownst to his parents, Deepak had struggled to process a video successful the nationalist domain that featured him. The circumstances surrounding his decease person sent shockwaves crossed Kerala, sparking wide treatment and outrage. His decease highlights the analyzable intersection of societal media, nationalist shaming, intersexual abuse, and intelligence health.

The incidental connected the bus

The erstwhile day, 35-year-old Shimjitha Musthafa from Vadakara, who describes herself connected Instagram arsenic a “trained psychologist”, posted a video. She alleged that Deepak sexually harassed her connected a autobus successful Payyannur, Kannur district. She claimed that Deepak, who had been travelling successful the backstage autobus from Payyannur railway presumption to the autobus stand, deliberately elbowed her breast.

The video struck a nerve. Sexual harassment successful crowded nationalist transport is simply a lived world for countless women crossed India. The clip went viral, reaching much than 2 cardinal radical wrong a fewer hours. When immoderate radical successful the comments conception questioned her intent and the framing of the video, Musthafa deleted the clip. Later, she posted a follow-up video. She said that her purpose was not to people an individual, but to item a “serious societal and intelligence wellness issue.”

It was Asgar Ali, a person of Deepak, who informed him astir the video. “Deepak was introverted,” Ali says. “He was recovering from the trauma of a divorce. When I spoke to him connected the nighttime of his birthday, helium was precise distressed. He feared nationalist humiliation. He told maine helium would instrumentality ineligible measures against the woman.”

For Kanyaka, the representation of that nighttime is unbearable. “Though helium was 42, helium was similar a child,” she says. “He was precise delicate. He would not bash thing without asking me. To instrumentality specified a step, helium indispensable person been breached inside. How overmuch my lad indispensable person cried each night….”

Deepak’s cousin, U. Jayaprakash, and his woman Sini are successful a authorities of disbelief. “Nobody who knew Deepak would ever judge that helium could sexually harass someone,” says Jayaprakash. “He was precise attached to his mother. He indispensable person disquieted astir however specified an allegation would impact her.”

The household accused Musthafa of utilizing the video to summation fame and followers. Public choler swelled rapidly. Soon, Deepak’s decease was nary longer a backstage tragedy; it became a nationalist flashpoint. While respective women’s rights activists urged radical to enactment calm and not suffer show of the complexity of the issue, galore men were angry. A bid of videos showed men travelling successful buses with cardboard boxes covering their bodies. One of the astir wide shared clips featured a autobus conductor wearing a cardboard container implicit his precocious body, bearing a connection demanding the enactment of a men’s commission.

Complaints and inquiries

On January 19, Kanyaka filed a ailment against Musthafa with the Kozhikode City Police Commissioner. The Kozhikode Medical College constabulary registered a lawsuit and invoked Section 109 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023. This is simply a non-bailable offence relating to abetment to suicide. The constabulary arrested Musthafa from her relative’s location successful Vadakara and remanded her to judicial custody for 14 days. The State Human Rights Commission directed the constabulary to taxable a study wrong a week.

In its remand study earlier the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, Kunnamangalam, the constabulary stated that Deepak had died by termination owed to the humiliation caused by the videos filmed and shared by Musthafa.

The investigation, the constabulary said, included a reappraisal of CCTV footage from the autobus successful which Musthafa and Deepak had travelled. “There was thing abnormal oregon objectionable [in it],” they wrote successful the remand report. “The footage does not amusement immoderate inappropriate oregon antithetic behaviour.” Statements from the autobus unit and chap passengers besides reportedly confirmed that nary incidental of harassment oregon misconduct took spot during the journey, the remand study said.

The constabulary besides said that Musthafa recorded aggregate videos of the alleged intersexual harassment successful the autobus and deleted immoderate of them. Her telephone has been sent for forensic analysis. “We person sought constabulary custody of the accused for further questioning,” says a constabulary source.

The constabulary added successful the study that Musthafa, who holds a postgraduate grade and is erstwhile ward subordinate of the Areacode Grama Panchayat, was alert of the ineligible request to attack the constabulary if she had experienced harassment.

Meanwhile, from Manjeri jail, Musthafa filed a ailment done her member with the Payyannur police, reiterating that she was sexually harassed connected the autobus connected January 16. The Payyannur constabulary person initiated a preliminary inquiry.

A battleground

As ineligible processes unfolded, nationalist sermon exploded. Almost overnight, the nationalist cognition of Musthafa shifted. Initially seen arsenic a unfortunate of intersexual harassment, she came to beryllium seen arsenic an abettor of suicide. Social media turned into a battleground. Many radical questioned the authenticity of the video, arguing that the interaction betwixt Deepak and her could person been accidental arsenic the autobus was crowded. Some influencers and YouTubers branded the video “fake.”

Deepak’s decease altered the communicative entirely. What was erstwhile a speech astir women’s information successful nationalist transport turned into a bitter statement connected mendacious allegations, nationalist shaming, and the destructive powerfulness of societal media. The lawsuit raised uncomfortable questions astir accountability, justice, and empathy successful the integer age.

Feminists themselves appeared divided. “When a pistillate says she was sexually harassed and shows video grounds of it, however does that automatically go abetment to suicide,” idiosyncratic wondered. Some women argued that termination cannot invalidate an allegation, particularly erstwhile the pistillate continues to basal by her assertion adjacent aft the man’s death. Others asked whether the video should person been made nationalist earlier an investigation. Should societal media influencers presume the relation of arbiters of justice? Should nationalist sentiment beryllium allowed to find guilt?

Cyber transgression researcher Pattathil Dhanya Menon points to ineligible grey zones. “Technically speaking, successful a nationalist space, you cannot sprout different idiosyncratic without consent,” she says. “If it was recorded arsenic grounds against violence, it should person been submitted to the police. It should not person been edited oregon tampered with.” She stresses the urgent request for consciousness astir the usage of societal media.

As the statement raged on, Musthafa became the people of vicious online abuse. She received rape and execution threats. Ajay Unni, from the Bharatiya Janata Party, who contested the caller Thodupuzha Municipality elections, said women who make specified videos should beryllium raped first.

Seeing the firestorm, galore women came retired successful enactment of Musthafa. They said that determination are hardly immoderate women who person not experienced harassment successful crowded buses oregon nationalist spaces successful India. Detailing their ain experiences, women besides spoke of however they are routinely shamed and isolated erstwhile they talk up.

Data from the National Crime Records Bureau amusement that India’s transgression complaint against women accrued successful 2022 by 4% points compared to 2021. The nationalist mean stood astatine 66.4 cases per lakh women, driven by precocious rates successful Delhi (144.4), Haryana (118.7), and Telangana (117.6). States specified arsenic Kerala (82) and Madhya Pradesh (78.8) were person to the nationalist average.

“School and assemblage students are the astir predominant victims,” says Radhika P., a 53-year-old income unit subordinate successful Kozhikode. “My girl often complains to me. Even astatine my age, I’m not spared. Women ever question with fear. We person to stay alert successful crowded buses.”

Musthafa’s supporters besides pointed to the apathy of the constabulary and the judicial strategy successful handling harassment complaints. This, they argued, pushes women to station videos online arsenic a signifier of self-defence, a mode of reclaiming bureau and deterring imaginable perpetrators. They cited the 2023 lawsuit of Savad Sha, who was arrested for masturbating wrong a Kerala State transport autobus portion sitting adjacent to a woman. She uploaded a video of the enactment online. The woman, an histrion and model, faced terrible attacks online from men’s groups. Some of them adjacent received the accused aft helium obtained bail. In 2025, Savad Sha was booked again for molesting different pistillate successful different bus, validating the earlier complaint.

“If the promptness shown successful arresting Musthafa had been shown successful acting connected complaints of harassment successful buses, things would beryllium different,” says screenwriter and feminist activistic Didi Damodharan. “There is hardly a pistillate who has not had a atrocious acquisition successful nationalist transport. That is what Musthafa tried to accidental done her video. Whether this circumstantial lawsuit is existent oregon not should beryllium decided by the constabulary and courts.”

She adds, “Mobile phones tin beryllium effectual tools of aforesaid defence. The precise consciousness that 1 mightiness beryllium nether ticker tin marque nationalist spaces safer for women.” At the aforesaid time, she cautions against the oversimplification of Deepak’s suicide. “There whitethorn beryllium galore reasons down this death. The video could beryllium 1 factor, but it whitethorn not beryllium the sole reason.”

Damodharan is blunt astir however the communicative has been weaponised. “The tears of the parent are being utilized to onslaught the women’s liberation movement. Instead of emphasising that termination is ne'er a solution, each choler has been directed astatine the pistillate and the video. There appears to beryllium a deliberate effort to crush adjacent the smallest anticipation of women’s empowerment,” she says.

She besides points to deeper anxieties astatine play. “The accessibility of societal media and phones for women disrupts powerfulness equations successful a patriarchal society. That is wherefore the contented is framed arsenic a occupation of women utilizing societal media,” she says.

Drawing lines

As Musthafa was brought to the Medical College constabulary station, radical blocked postulation and shouted abuses. Similar scenes were reported extracurricular Manjeri jail. People posted videos connected societal media, attacking women and feminist activists. Political parties and their cyber warriors jumped in, each pushing their ain agenda.

In the 2017 lawsuit involving the abduction and intersexual battle of a Malayalam actor, the tribunal took the ages of the accused into relationship portion determining the sentence. In different lawsuit of intersexual misconduct, the tribunal showed information to the accused, filmmaker P.T. Kunju Muhammed, due to the fact that of his age. “What, then, is the ‘right’ property for a antheral to beryllium punished adequately successful a lawsuit of harassment,” asks Damodharan.

Women activists besides constituent retired that the gravity of the allegation against Musthafa is acold little terrible than crimes specified arsenic rape and pack rape. They question the disproportionate effect and the strength of the punitive enactment successful her case.

On the different hand, men’s rights activists assertion that Deepak’s decease is not an isolated incident. They reason that men are progressively victims of nationalist humiliation and reputational harm without evidence. Activist Rahul Easwar announced a 24x7 helpline for men facing intelligence harassment and declared January 17 arsenic ‘Men’s Rights Day’. He gave Deepak’s parents “initial aid” of ₹3.17 lakh.

Psychiatrist Dr. Shaju George, who is from Thrissur and works successful Dubai, says, “Ending one’s beingness is astir normalised arsenic a effect to intelligence trauma. What is tragic is that neither helium nor his friends oregon household sought nonrecreational intelligence oregon ineligible help.”

Deepak’s decease has near down grieving parents, a pistillate successful jail, and a nine profoundly divided. It is the communicative not conscionable of 1 antheral and 1 video, but of a societal declaration stretched bladed by technology, patriarchy, fear, and grief. It forces Kerala, a State that has conscionable declared itself 100% digitally literate, to face an uncomfortable truth: successful the property of societal media, justness is seen arsenic everyone’s business, delivered successful quick, reckless shorts. And the outgo is often paid successful lives.

Those successful distress oregon having suicidal tendencies could question assistance and counselling from Kerala Suicide Prevention Helpline, Disha, astatine 1056 oregon 0471-2552056. You tin besides telephone immoderate of the different determination helplines recovered successful this link.