A woman officer who was attached to the probe into the rape and murder of the doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital was allegedly given rape threats on social media by a man claiming to be fighting for the rape victim.

Kolkata Police have started a case against three “YouTubers” under sections of the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986, and sections of the Information Technology Act.

Sources said one of the YouTube users threatened the officer with rape and wrote in the comments section of a post that she would be subjected to the same torture as the 31-year-old doctor found dead on August 9.

Another YouTube user allegedly made “objectionable remarks” about the woman officer with sexual connotations.

The third allegedly dared the officer to step out of her home.

“It is simply not acceptable that any woman should be subjected to such language or trolling on social media or in-person just because she was part of a probe team that stuck to the facts and did not buckle under the immense public pressure to make more arrests. In the first four days of the investigation, our probe and actions were strictly restricted to the scientific evidence we got. We arrested one person because there was prima facie evidence. After that, the CBI took over the case,” said an officer at the Kolkata Police headquarters in Lalbazar.

The CBI was handed charge of the investigation on August 13. There have been no arrests since then.

The police registered the case against the YouTubers at Hare Street police station.

Sources said the police have written to YouTube seeking details of the users who had posted the comments on the public platform.

An officer said the police were yet to get a response from YouTube.

This is not the first time this officer has been trolled on social media for her association with the probe.

“Once she was tagged a liar, once she was accused of distortion of facts despite being a woman herself. Being in the service, we often face such professional hazards. However, this was different. This time, she has been directly threatened with rape and sexual assault,” the officer said.

Several women officers were part of the probe and are equally vulnerable to such threats, the police said.

“If we find such derogatory comments again, we will start fresh cases,” said an officer.

Several posts are in circulation on social media where the police are being reminded that their daughters are also approaching adulthood, which many see as a thinly veiled threat.