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On September 4, Kannada actress Samyuktha Hegde and two of her were allegedly harassed by Congress spokesperson Kavitha Reddy. It was also stated by Samyuktha that Kavitha charged at one of her friends for their choice of clothes and called the actress 'a cabaret dancer'. Later, an apology was issued by Kavitha on Twitter. However, on Tuesday, the Bengaluru police arrested Kavitha for assaulting and harassing Samyuktha. In her statement, Samyuktha said that Kavitha's apology was not satisfactory and genuine.
Now, Samyuktha has now withdrawn her complaint against Kavitha and said she does not want to pursue any case considering Kavitha's age. In her statement, Samyuktha thanked the people who supported her. She wrote, "I really really appreciate all the support I’ve been getting, all the love, all the posts, all the trolls, all the tweets that gave this voice an amplifier. You all have played such a major role in making this a nationwide impact, this is a feather on the cap for all of us as a society and I hope that the horrible incident of Friday results in wider awareness about how moral policing cannot be tolerated in our lovely cosmopolitan city or anywhere else (sic)."
Samyuktha revealed that Kavitha's apology was not satisfactory or genuine. "Let’s be clear, Kavitha Reddy’s apology was not satisfactory or genuine, She had not taken down her posts or tweets for 16 hours after issuing a public apology which shows how casual she was about this apology and had clearly done this under pressure as it was affecting her public image and many of you have also pointed this out. However, I want the focus of this issue to not be on her or me or the incident, I hope this goes a small way in working on greater freedom for women everywhere around," she added.
The actress wrote that she consulted with her family and decided not to pursue her case against Kavitha considering her age. "I've consulted with my family and also keeping Kavitha Reddy’s age in mind, I am not interested and don't want to pursue my case against her and I have formally requested the police yesterday about the same. However, I want to be clear: I still hope that strong action is taken against Anil Reddy and the others with him, who threatened and abused us at the park and made us feel so helpless," she wrote.
Kavitha, in her apology video, had said, "I have stated my version of events and expressed regrets. And even though I did not physically hit or assault Samyukta’s friend, I still owe an unconditional apology for losing my temper irrespective of whatever the provocation was. Moral policing is something I have always opposed and it is unthinkable that I would make such regressive comments. With a lot of public around, there were a lot of heated arguments and commotion as well as out of context recordings. The ugly incident should not have happened nor should be seen as political or moral policing."
I have always opposed Moral Policing. I realize that my actions were construed as such. An argument ended up in me reacting aggressively as well, it was a mistake. As a responsible citizen n progressive woman, I own up to n sincerely apologise to @SamyukthaHegde n her Friends! pic.twitter.com/pM9UJkWESC
— Kavitha Reddy (KR) Jai Bhim! (@KavithaReddy16) September 6, 2020
(Source: Instagram/Twitter)
