Actor Samyuktha Hegde and two friends had gone to a park next to the Agara Lake in HSR Layout, Bengaluru on Friday evening to exercise and practice with their hula hoops. But the outing soon turned into a nightmare, and the actor has alleged that she was heckled by a group of people led by AICC member Kavitha Reddy for wearing a sports bra in a public place.
Samyuktha Hedge recorded the altercation on Instagram live, and said that the crowd that gathered accused her of consuming drugs just because she is an actor.
In another video of the incident, a man can be clearly seen threatening her that he will tell the media that she was doing drugs. Kavitha Reddy also called the police to the spot, and in the video she and other members of the crowd can be heard saying that Samyuktha and her friends must be booked for public indecency.
“This is so wrong. I had my pullover on. We came here and I removed it and did my warmup. We were just exercising with hoops and this woman (referring to Kavitha Reddy) came up to us and started saying that we were being indecent for wearing a sports bra in a public place. We were just exercising by ourselves. Now the people here are saying that we consume drugs. Just because the drug case is being talked about, they are accusing us of consuming drugs,” Samyuktha Hedge said in her Instagram live as she broke down into tears. She also removed her pullover again for the camera and for the police to show them what she was wearing inside.
Samyuktha alleged that Kavitha Reddy likened them to cabaret dancers and questioned the clothes they were wearing. The actor also said that she was threatened by Kavitha. “A******s, if you wear such clothes the next time and something happens to you, don’t come crying to anyone. This is what she told us,” Samyuktha Hegde alleged in her Instagram live.
According to Samyuktha, the police arrived at the spot and told her and her friends to leave. However, the crowd locked the gate to the park surrounding the lake and did not let them leave. One person in the crowd also hit Samyuktha on her hand when she tried to open the gate.
“This is so, so wrong. This was done in broad daylight and in a public park. And the woman (Kavitha reddy) hurled abuses at us for simply wearing workout clothes. What was it that we did wrong that my friends and I were attacked and verbally abused. This is moral policing and it has to stop,” Samyuktha said in the video.
However, one of the police officers asked Samyuktha and her friends to leave as a crowd was gathering. “People are gathering here. Please leave,” the police officer can be heard saying to Samyuktha. However, Kavitha Reddy and the crowd locked the gate to the park and demanded that the actor be taken to the police station. She said that she wanted to file a complaint against Samyuktha for “public indecency”. However, the police personnel, who came to defuse the situation, agreed with Samyuktha that she and her friends did nothing wrong and let them off.
The actor also uploaded a short video on Twitter and Instagram, where Kavitha Reddy can be seen charging at one of the women. The incident drew a crowd in the park surrounding the lake, where passers-by, mostly men, began shouting slogans, “Down Down Samyuktha”.
In her long Instagram live, at least three people who had come to the park, could be heard supporting the actor and her friends. One young man told the police that if the trio were to be thrown out on the basis of their clothes, then all men wearing shorts should also be asked to leave. Another man who identified himself as a doctor can be seen saying that the women did nothing wrong and they were just working out.
Kavitha Reddy, however, maintains that the altercation started as the women were playing music loudly. “Since the last three to four days, these women have been playing music and dancing, which is not allowed. Several regulars have told them not to do that. Yesterday, the guard told me that he was being yelled at by the public and asked me to come. I told them to not play music and dance. If I have to allow them then other people will be emboldened to come with speakers and play loud music,” she said.
“The minute I took a picture of her, one of the girls called a bloody old b**** and that's when I got angry and went to confront her. I was instigated. Why should I be called names? We saved the lake and have been protecting it since the last 10 years,” she claimed.
The park that Kavitha Reddy is talking about is open to all sections of the public. Moreover, throughout the 16 minute video that Samyuktha uploaded, Kavitha Reddy or the others cannot be heard talking about loud music, they were only complaining that the women were dressed ‘indecently’.
(This piece was originally published in The News Minute and has been republished with permission. Read the original story here.)
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