AIB, Utsav Chakraborty address sexual harassment allegations; get called out on Twitter

Twitter was aghast and furious after a thread claiming that stand-up comic Utsav Chakraborty had send explicit images to several women, including minors on social media.

The Twitter user, who made the allegations, started a thread condemning Utsav Chakraborty’s sexual misconduct with women, especially minor girls. He has been accused of asking minors to send ‘nudes’.

She then went on to share examples of how “Chakraborty had in fact sent sexually explicit messages to her and to many other women.”

The threat led to a number of women sharing their stories, prompting AIB to release a statement.

Statement pic.twitter.com/eLpthXifwf

— All India Bakchod (@AllIndiaBakchod) October 4, 2018

However, the group has also been called out for their statement by the user, who had in her thread said she had spoken to the founding members of the team, but to no avail. AIB then tweeted this, ""Also, a ton of rumours and allegations flying around suggesting Utsav is / was AIB’s Head Writer. Utsav was never our Head Writer. Also, Utsav has not been an employee at AIB since the end of 2016." 

Utsav, too, issued a statement, which claimed that the situation was more 'complicated' than what it appeared to be.

Statement 1/n pic.twitter.com/sIouz4UsaR

— Utsav (@Wootsaw) October 4, 2018

Here is how people reacted

What’s up with this Utsav? Your behaviour has been consistently misogynist for a while and you keep pretending to be woke like your boyfriends at AIB who keep you employed as well. Women don’t feel safe around you. What are you doing about this?

— Aditi (hot takes 4 koolkidz) (@awryaditi) October 4, 2018

AIB says Utsav doesn't for them anymore, but what is he doing in its recent video for @hotstartweets? pic.twitter.com/NuQ6mDkW6l

— Ankur Singh (@iAnkurSingh) October 4, 2018

How's it AIB fault? Do u think they didn't knew about the entire thing? Dude they must be sharing such pics on their whatsapp group! Is Utsav the only 1? I don't think so! Shamir yaad hai!
And the sad part is that no1 is surprised, it's like every1 had a clue but no evidence.

— Khamman Ghani (@Ajeeb_n_garib) October 4, 2018

I remember the first time I saw Utsav in an AIB sketch, I was horrified. Then, he ended up getting a cameo in some Bollywood movie and when he came on screen, I had to re-live that traumatic memory.
Even something as little as "asking for nudes" can seriously traumatize you.

— Dr. M (@ms_escapist) October 4, 2018

This isn't the first such case. In February this year, 25-year-old Mumbai slam poet Shamir Reubin was accused of making sexual advances towards minor girls.

That incident came to light after a 19-year-old spoke out. "It was through ask.fm that I came into contact with Shamir Reuben. He approached me with a simple, sweet message, and we exchanged numbers. This was someone that was looked up to by everyone on the site, including me. Which is why I was extremely confused when he attempted to initiate sexting. I was far too naive to realise what was going on, however I was extremely uncomfortable so I played it off and managed to dodge the conversation," she wrote in her Facebook post.

Following this, a number of poets from the city came out and called Reuben for his sexting of minors.

More recently, former Bollywood actor Tanushree Dutta has been in the news for speaking about how she was harassed, allegedly by Nana Patekar and Ganesh Acharya during the making of Horn Ok Pleassss.