Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 1 (TOI) : Police on Monday arrested five persons from three districts on charges of abusing TV journalist Sindhu Sooryakumar over phone and through social media.

The police identified the accused as Rarish ( 20) of Thiruvananthapuram, Vikas (31) Vibhash (25) and Shijin (28) of Kannur and Ramdas (57) of Thrissur. Sindhu, chief coordinating editor of Asianet News, had filed a complaint before city police commissioner G Sparjan Kumar on Sunday regarding the telephonic and mass online attacks allegedly from RSS, BJP and Sangh Parivar workers.

As per the complaint, her remarks on Goddess Durga during a talk show she hosted on Friday had provoked the men.

"All the arrested are active RSS workers," said Cantonment circle-inspector G Ujjwal Kumar, who has been probing the complaint. The accused were nabbed by tracing their phone numbers. The men, while admitting to the crime, said they just registered their dissent over the "derogatory" remarks made by Sindhu, said the officer.

He added that Sindhu received calls text messages from over 1,500 numbers, some of them from foreign numbers.

The police have been making all efforts to trace and nab maximum number of abusers. The accused were let off later as the offence comes under bailable sections. Another journalist of the same channel, Lallu Sasidharan Pillai has also filed a complaint over online threats.