Samyuktha Hegde, a 22-year old actor in the South Indian film industry, has been reportedly abused and assaulted for wearing a sports bra while working out in a Bengaluru park. Sharing videos from the incident on her Instagram profile, Hegde has alleged that Congress leader Kavitha Reddy “tried to hit” her.

Parts of the incident, which took place near Agara Lake in HSR Layout, have been recorded on live video by Hegde and posted on Instagram. In a video, Hegde says that she was practising hula hoops with her friends in the park, when “We were abused and ridiculed by Kavitha Reddy.”

In her live, Hegde accused Reddy of saying, “Asshol*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.” She even reportedly condemned the girls for “stripping in the public” and doing “cabaret dancing.”

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Samyuktha Hegde Posts Videos Of Being Moral Policed For Outfit

Hegde, who can be seen wearing a pullover, even took it off on camera to show the viewers her outfit – a sports bra. Breaking down in tears, she says, “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.”

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She adds, “They tried to hit us, defame us and now we are being asked to apologise and leave instead of creating a scene here.” Bangalore Mirror quoted Hegde as saying, “Despite being polite and trying to solve the problem, the lady hit my friend and used disparaging remarks about me and my friends.”

In another series of videos and photos shared by Hegde, Reddy can indeed be seen lashing out at one of the girls. Watch the video here:

View this post on Instagram

Video 1 and 2, you can see the lady clearly (kavitha reddy) charging at my friend and attempting to hit her Video 3: after she tried to assault my friend, when we were waiting for the police to arrive some People in the park who knew her started supporting her and playing moral police and asking us if it is our culture to wear sports wear Video 4: this man in the red checkered shirt and about 10 men with her arrived right before the police did and started threatening us. His name is Anil, and you can clearly hear him threatening me. In my line of work even false news is enough to destroy my career and he threatened me exactly of that and the police stood there and just watched. This is when i decided to go live and have our side of the story put out there in the open After being in a democracy and following all the norms of social distancing, we were abused and ridiculed by Kavitha Reddy and the mob in Agara Lake for practicing our hoolahoop while wearing sportswear. Despite being polite and trying to solve the problem, the lady hit my friend and used disparaging remarks about me and my friends Was extremely disappointed with how the police who came to the location behaved , like nothing was wrong and spoke to her with respect while asked us to be quite. The cops stood there while her mob harassed us and even after requesting the police continuously, they decided to stand there and support this (proof on igtv) Yesterday was really hard and it was so disturbing to go through this When we went to the police station, everyone there already knew her and spoke to her nicely and saw us like we were wrong. The only police who spoke to us with some respect and told her she was wrong was the inspector is the hsr police station muni reddy, he asked us both to file our respective complaints and he left. We wrote the complaint and gave it to the police. The police present there refused to give us an acknowledgement for the same. Its not easy being strong around people who are trying to break you, and having to listen to so many people harass us for doing nothing. THIS IS JUST WRONG I request you all for your support 💛 @blrcitypolice #thisiswrong #punishkavithareddy

A post shared by Samyuktha Hegde (@samyuktha_hegde) on Sep 4, 2020 at 10:24pm PDT

Hegde Cites Threats And Police Inaction

 Hegde reportedly said, “This is just so wrong. When we were waiting for the police to arrive some people in the park who knew her started supporting her and playing moral police and asking us if it is our culture to wear sportswear.” In the video also, a crowd of men satanding alongside Reddy can be seen.

“About ten men with her arrived right before the police did and started threatening us. They threatened to destroy our careers and the police stood there and just watched. This is when I decided to go live and have our side of the story put out there in the open.”

Hegde has written on Instagram how she “Was extremely disappointed with how the police who came to the location behaved , like nothing was wrong and spoke to her with respect while asked us to be quite.”

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Kavitha Reddy Responds To The Accusations

Hegde signed off on her Instagram post writing, “THIS IS JUST WRONG… I request you all for your support.” A few members from the film industry have come forward in support of Hegde. Sharing the video, actor Sundeep Kishan wrote on Twitter, “This is so so so wrong…”

Meanwhile, video jockey Benafsha Soonawalla wrote on Instagram, “What!????? Sending you power my strong girl. This is atrocious.”

Responding to the claims, Reddy took to Twitter to write, “I did not bother about Vikram Hegde trolls will I bother about Samyukta Hegde trolls… Aiyo when some CHEAP Publicity Actor does a Video it is clear that she is doing it for Publicity.”

Image Credit: Samyuktha Hegde/IGTV