Where in the world will this happen? Have we become too low? Threat is what people deserve for speaking against the hatred? These questions line up when we learned about a shocking piece of news where a social media user had threatened to rape Virat Kohli's nine-month-old daughter after the former had taken a stand against the communal abuse faced by his fellow teammate Mohammed Shami, after India lost to Pakistan in its opening match of the T20 World Cup. 

This awful incident had also raised an alarming question of whether the Indian cricket fans aren't tolerating the loss, not in a war, but in a sport where debacles are part of the business. The defeat in a sport can be met with criticisms but when such critics turn into hatred and bigotry, the flaw is with us and neither with the players nor with the sport. It is appalling to see how much hatred one should have fed in to issue a rape threat to a nine-month-old toddler and Virat Kohli's daughter isn't the first one to receive such a threat as last year, MS Dhoni had received a rape threat against his daughter Ziva for his performance, not against Pakistan, but in the IPL. This has become a horrible tale where the kids of Indian cricketers are targeted by Indian fans. 

The incident, that happened on Tuesday, of a rape threat to Kohli's daughter had swiftly drawn national attention with the Delhi Commission of Women (DCW) issuing notice to the Delhi police. The rape threats were made after Virat Kohli criticised the communal abuse and hate messages that were made against Indian pacer Mohammed Shami after the team has lost to Pakistan on October 24. While the incident had sparked outrage, a section of social media users had called the user a native of Pakistan. 

DCW Chairperson Swati Maliwal had addressed her notice to the Deputy Commissioner of Police and Cyber Crime Branch of Delhi Police in which she had highlighted that the commission has taken suo motu cognisance of the matter for further investigation. She penned, "The Delhi Commission of Women has taken suo motu cognizance on media reports of threats given to the family of Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli." 

She said, "It has been reported that online threats are being given to rape the 9-month-old girl child of Virat Kohli since the team's defeat in the recent India Pakistan cricket match. It is learnt that he is being also attacked since he spoke against the incessant trolling of his teammate Md. Shami who was targeted for his religion by online trolls. This is a very serious matter and attracts immediate action." Maliwal has also asked the police to provide details of the accused identified and arrested in the matter, the details of steps taken by Delhi police to arrest the accused if the accused was yet to be arrested, a copy of an FIR, and detailed action taken report. 

"Considering the gravity of the matter, please provide the sought information to the Commission latest by 08.11.2021", Maliwal added. According to reports, screenshots of the rape threats were shared on social media platforms and several leaders and fraternities came in to express solidarity to Virat Kohli. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took to social media and wrote, "Dear Virat, These people are filled with hate because nobody gives them any love. Forgive them. Protect the team."  As the police had begun the probe, there has been a debate that the user who issued the rape threat is a Pakistani.  

Amid such debate, it has now come to light that the user is an Indian, not Pakistani. The threat was made by a Twitter user whose username earlier was @ramanheist and then the name was changed to @criccrazyygirl to pose as a Pakistani cricket fan. According to BoomLive, the Twitter account from where the rape threat came from was managed by a Telugu-speaking Indian right-wing user. Alt News delved into the now-deleted Twitter handle @criccrazyygirl and while it has affirmed that the user belongs to India, the gender remains unknown. 

The account was made in a way that the user was a Pakistani and the location of the user was pinned as 'Indian Occupied Kashmir'. However, that user belongs to Hyderabad and is habitual of tweeting right-wing messages and pro-BJP tweets. Alt News had identified that the user belongs to India through the source code, Twitter's unique ID, and its retweets. Powering the claim that the user is an Indian, the account had retweeted tweets in Telugu and the account's previous username had also carried a Telugu word. It has been reported that this Twitter user had retweeted a tweet in Hindi that was about the Aryan Khan case. The verification has also ruled out the claims which said that the rape threat was from a Pakistani bot account and affirmed that the account hails from India. 

Communal abuse faced by Shami and how Kohli reacted to it? 

Mohammed Shami had faced attacks over his religion after India had lost its opening match to Pakistan in the ongoing T20 World Cup. Pakistan had defeated India by ten wickets and it was in Shami's over that the Pakistan batsmen finished the chase successfully and scripted the history of beating India for the first time in the World Cup. Shami was trolled on social media not for his bowling, but for his Muslim identity. The development had showcased how India's most celebrated sport had become vulnerable to bigotry and how the players are condemned based on their identity not on their performances.

Reacting to the abuse, Virat Kohli said,  "Attacking someone over their religion is the most, I would say, pathetic thing that a human being can do." He called that the social media trolls are nothing but a bunch of spineless people, who don't have the courage to face real people in real life. He said, "There is a good reason why we are playing on the field and not some bunch of spineless people on social media that have no courage to actually speak to any individual in person." 

He stated, "Everyone has the right to voice their opinion and what they feel about a certain situation, but I personally have never ever even thought of discriminating against anyone over their religion. That is a very sacred and a personal thing and that should be left there." "Mohammed Shami has won India number of matches in the last few years and has been our primary bowler with Jasprit Bumrah when it comes to making an impact in games in Test cricket", he added. 

He further said, "If people can overlook that, I honestly don't even want to waste one minute of my life to give any attention to those people and neither does Shami and neither does anyone else in the team. We stand by him (Shami) fully. We are backing him 200 per cent. And all those who have attacked can come in more force if they want to. Our brotherhood, our friendship within the team and nothing can be shaken and I can guarantee you that as the captain of the team that we have built a culture where these things will not even infiltrate into this environment. That is an absolute guarantee for myself."