Bangalore: Photo of molesters goes viral, helps police arrest culprits

Bangalore: It started as a simple photo upload on Facebook but soon turned into a social campaign that went viral. A picture of two boys making lewd gestures at two girls was uploaded by Akshay Kingar and Ajay Bhaskar on March 8. Within a couple of hours, the post generated 15,000 likes and shares, including calls from several prominent Bangaloreans who offered to bring justice to the girls.

Akshay Kingar said, "People wanted to spread this in such a way that there is a correction taking place and justice is delivered. Even a small situation which a lot of people claim is small but which is the start of something big probably. So it is good that it was controlled in the early stages it self."

The post created such a buzz, that even the Bangalore Police was pushed into action, registering an FIR and tracking down and arresting the culprits within two days.

A picture of two boys making lewd gestures at two girls was uploaded by two boys on March 8.

The boys who sparked the campaign believe that social media can be used to reduce attacks against women. Akshay adds, "The process of actually going ahead and filing an FIR is too tedious or it might be even torturous for a girl to do it herself. So I think there should be easier ways for them to say this is what happened and to seek help. So this is where the whole social network comes in and does a fabulous."

Akshay and Ajay hope that their campaign inspires more people to speak out and be the change.

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