Women activists criticise Mallya junior over tweet

, May 18: Women leaders and activists on Friday criticised Sidhartha Mallya for his comments casting aspersions on the character of Zohal Hameed, the woman who was allegedly molested by Luke Pomersbach, one of the

players from the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).

Mallya junior's comments came following the arrest of Pomersbach, a batsman from Western Australia, on a charge of molesting Hameed and attacking her fiance. Sidhartha, Director of the RCB, accused her of talking nonsense and went on to say "she was all over me last night and asked for my BBM (blackberry messenger) pin".

Reacting to his tweets, woman activist Ranjana Kumari said nobody had the right to sexually assault the woman. "Such irresponsible behaviour is not acceptable, whosoever the person may be. He must apologise to the women of the country," she said.

"Whatever he is doing by tweeting and behaving in such way, it is insulting to women. By insulting women, he becomes an accomplice to a criminal for sexual assault is a criminal act. If he is trying to protect the player for he belongs to his team, he should be arrested," she said.

Congress spokesperson Renuka Chowdhury said: "The easiest thing you can do is to denigrate a woman. He is a young man. I will give him good advice as a mother that you have to learn to respect women, whatever their character is."

PTI