“I feel on top of the world. These seven days were literally like hell, like a journey to hell. We had no clue if this would end or not and suddenly we got this news. I can not even begin to tell you how happy and relieved I am that my son is alive and fine and going to be back,” Deepa Tiwari, MC Kode’s mother, speaks to The Quint a short while after being told that her son would be brought back to Delhi by the morning of 10 June from Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur district.
Tiwari does not know how or why Aditya was found in Jabalpur. “I do not know why he was found there, I have not spoken to him yet. I only got to know when a police officer called, he did not provide details of how he was tracked to Jabalpur. I will know better later,” she said.
Critical of social media trolling that deeply impacted her son’s health, not only her but all of MC Kode’s friends are relieved that their worst fears have been put to rest.
Kode went offline on 2 June after a cryptic messaging hinting at suicide as he spoke of standing at a bridge on the Yamuna river. His message came in the light of him being trolled, threatened and abused, with people filing complaints against him and placing bounties on his head for being ‘Hinduphobic’ after a video of him from 2016 showed him making controversial remarks about the Mahabharata during a battle rap. Despite an apology by him, the hate kept increasing.
MC Kode’s Mother: Something Must be Done About Online Trolls, Threats
“I think the police has done a very good job. I want to thank the police from the bottom of my heart,” Tiwari says.
Continuing to speak, she says, “I have to tell you one more thing. We absolutely must do something about trolling and threatening on social media. This is just not done you know? You can not abuse someone and create a scenario where a person is forced to say that it is over,” she says. Tiwari had appealed to her son to return while he was missing.
Specifically referring to Twitter and Instagram where Kode got continuous hate, and continues to, she says:
“This Twitter and Instagram should have put some kind of an end to it, you know. When they saw so much trolling and threatening happening, I am sure they must have some mechanism to put a stop to it. Now if they do not have a mechanism and it is a free for all, then it is a very dangerous situation.”
When we inquired about Kode’s mental health and how he will be after returning to Delhi, as the hate shall continue, she said her son is very strong. “Aditya is mentally very strong but yes I am going to suggest that he could go for therapy sessions as he has been through so much hate in the last few days. However he is a 22 year old so it has to be his choice. We will do whatever we can but the last call will have to be his,” Tiwari said.
MC Kode’s Friends Say They Are Glad He Chose Life
Kode’s close friends 22-year-old Kaveri* and 19-year-old Jagatveer* (name changed to protect identity) said they were relieved to hear the news.
Both Kaveri and Jagavteer were part of a WhatsApp group that was formed before Kode fell off the grid on 2 June. Then they were discussing strategies to counter the hate against him, but after his message they started to look for him. From the same night they went to all the bridges of Yamuna to look for him, as his message hinted he was there. They sent each other regular updates with photos and also visited night shelters, gurudwaras and bridges for days.
Then they started a campaign to get a complaint registered. Finally his mother, who Kode was not living with for the last year, wrote to the police and a complaint was registered on 5 June. Kode’s father had committed suicide. This is around the same time when his friends now started writing emails to police officials urging them to find their friend.
Now again, on the evening of 9 June, exactly a week after Kode fell off the group the same WhatsApp group is being bombarded with sighs, relief and excitement.
“Aditya has been a very good man to a lot of us . He’s done a lot for young and upcoming artists and he’s like a godfather to a lot of kids so you can imagine how much this had affected so many of us. I’m happy that Aditya chose life and chose to stay and fight and I really hope that the internet gets safer and better,” Kaveri* said.
Abhimanyu*, another performing artists based out of Delhi and a friend of Kode who has performed with him, said he was glad that Kode decided to save himself. “Even till a few hours before there were people constantly putting stories about him, some of them seemed like they had lost hope,” he said.
Concerned about his mental health, Kaveri* said:
“We’re just hoping that his mental health gets better and that people understand that what trolling , bullying and online abuse drove him to do and also, that the way it affected him it could happen to them next.”
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