Mumbai, Apr 16: Several Bollywood celebrities, including Rajkummar Rao, Twinkle Khanna and Kalki Koechlin, joined a protest to demand justice for the victims in the Kathua and Unnao rape cases, which have caused nation-wide outrage.
The protest, held here last evening, saw hundreds of people gathered at Carter Road holding placards with messages such as ‘Don’t let this movement fade away’.
Veteran actor Helen, who was present at the protest, told reporters, “I’m ashamed, I’m sad. I have no words to tell you… It’s horrifying. What will be the punishment?
“After a few days, they will make you forget about it. What can we do? The higher authorities should come forward.”
The protest was joined by other Bollywood personalities such as actors Aditi Rao Hydari, Patralekhaa, Sameera Reddy, singers Sona Mohapatra, Anushka Manchanda and music composer Vishal Dadlani, among others.
Actor Priyanka Chopra, who is currently in Ireland, had shared the invite for the protest on Twitter and appealed to people to attend it.
“If you can make it, please do. We all agree that armchair activism isn’t enough. There is strength in numbers and in unity,” she tweeted.
Vishal feels rapists should be given the harshest punishment and said it was extremely sad that some people came in support of the perpetrators of such a heinous crime.
“But remember, those who tried to save the rapists in both the cases, they come from the same thought process. We need to understand, India doesn’t belong to these people, it’s ours. We need to wake up and save India right now,” he added.
Aditi, who was seen holding a placard with a message ‘Politicians/Police/Court help citizens, not rapists’, said, “Till we do something, change won’t happen.”
“We need to understand the problem and make sure we tackle it, because no one is doing that so we will have to do it,” she further said.
An eight-year-old girl was raped and killed in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir.
A Special Investigation Team has arrested eight people, including two Special Police Officers (SPOs) and a Head Constable, in connection with the horrific incident.
In Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao, a teenage girl alleged she was raped by ruling BJP legislator Kuldeep Singh Sengar, who has been arrested by the CBI, which is probing the case.
