Kannada actress alleges moral policing by Congress leader in B’luru

Mumbai (IANS) – Bengaluru, Sep 5 (IANS) Kannada movie actress Samyuktha Hegde alleged moral policing and harassment by Congress leader Kavitha Reddy when she was out with her friends at Agara lake in the city.

“We were abused and ridiculed by Kavitha Reddy at Agara Lake. There are witnesses and more video evidence, I request you to look into this. #this is wrong,” tweeted Hegde tagging Bengaluru Police Commissioner and the city police official’s Twitter account.

She shared a 11-second video clipping of the incident which occurred on Friday evening in which at least four women can be identified while two boys are also seen at a distance.

Following a girl saying something in Kannada, Reddy was seen trying to shoot a video on her black Apple Iphone.

“These are the girls who are acting too smart,” said Reddy while trying to shoot the video as another unidentified girl from Hegde’s group could be heard saying here is a lady who abuses young people.

Immediately after this, Reddy charged at one of the girls as if to hit her with her right hand but stopped short as the girl managed to dodge her amid cries of shock and outrage from Hegde and others as the video ends there.

“The future of our country reflects on what we do today,” Hegde added.

Hegde was seen wearing a sports bra and tights. Her friend was seen wearing a grey t-shirt and body hugging pants while Reddy was in slippers, t-shirt and trousers.

Agara lake comes ahead of Koramangla and is adjacent to HSR Layout, a well-known posh locality in this tech hub.

Identifying herself as an All India Congress Committee (AICC) member, Karnataka Congress spokesperson, mountaineer, lake activist, Reddy lashed out at the film actress on social media later.

“I got called bloody bitch by some psycho B-grade celebrity and public stripper Samyuktha Hegde for standing up for guards who were abused by her, the day starts and ends,” tweeted Reddy about the incident.

The Congress leader alleged that Hegde abused a park guard.

“So stripping off in public for no real reason but only to do a live video and avoid going to police station is some great deed? Abusing a poor guard who works all day long is the behaviour of so-called celebrity? Calling someone bloody bitch for telling rules is cool?” asked Reddy.

According to her, Hegde was playing music in the park even after being informed about the public space’s rules.

“When the celebrity status becomes high, the misbehaviour starts. She is not new to tamashaa, kindly include that she not only abused guards but also was playing music even after being told about the rules of the park,” Reddy observed.

Reddy said abusing an ordinary hardworking guard is the quality of a B-grade celebrity like Hegde and alleged that she had disregard for rules.

Hegde was doing some cheap stunts and drama after getting caught for abusing a guard and some locals, she added.

“Elite high-class mentality who can’t follow rules but will abuse for stating rules. These psychos should be in jail along with Ragini,” said Reddy referring to another actress Ragini Dwivedi who was arrested on Friday by the Central Crime Branch for her alleged links in the ongoing drugs scandal.

Continuing to criticize the actress on Saturday also, Reddy added, she does not care about trolls.

“I did not bother about Vikram Hegde trolls, will I bother about Samyuktha Hegde trolls. Aiyo when some cheap publicity actor does a video, it is clear that she is doing it for publicity,” said the Congress leader.

Reddy also tweeted a Kannada news article, adding Hegde has enough of drama history.

In another 16-minute long video, Hegde was seen talking to a crowd of people as well as a couple of policemen, saying that what Reddy did was wrong.

“Guys please help us. We were doing our hoops, they are just trying to get attention. She (Reddy) tried to hit us, we have video proof of her trying to hit us and it is wrong. This is wrong. People trying to attack somebody just because they were doing something in public like hoop is just wrong,” said Hegde.

As she was seen speaking in both Kannada and English, some men were seen raising slogans against the actress in the presence of police.

Hegde also told the police that somebody in the crowd was trying to link her to the drugs case currently embroiling the Kannada film industry. She said such an attempt was wrong.

However, in the long video on YouTube, Hegde was seen wearing a hoodie over her sports bra.

She and her friends did not do anything wrong as she removed her hoodie to show that she was wearing a sports bra even as some men continued to chant slogans against her, the actress added.

A woman not visible in the video was heard arguing with Hegde that she was “dancing without clothes”.

“Can you hear this, ‘nanga nach’. She was talking so atrociously,” said Hegde about Reddy as the long video continues.