New Delhi: NCW chairperson Rekha Sharma has stirred up a controversy with her comment that there is a ‘rise in love-jihad cases’ in Maharashtra, drawing the ire of netizens, politicians and activists who demanded her resignation for giving credence to such a term.

Sharma had on Tuesday met Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari to discuss women safety-related issues in the State, including the alleged rising cases of love jihad in the State. Her comments drew flak people who termed it “unbecoming of her position”. No immediate response was available from Sharma but people close to her said she raised with the Governor the case of one inter-religion marriage in Maharashtra which was facing issues and she had even then clarified to him that she is not against inter-faith marriages.

Soon after her comments on love-jihad, netizens dug out her old tweets in which she allegedly made controversial remarks against women and politicians. Sharma, however, claimed that her Twitter account was hacked. The tweets are dated before she became the NCW chairperson.

Following the public outrage, she deleted her tweets and locked her Twitter account. “I have protected my tweets since last evening after receiving a message from Twitter that suspicious activity was detected on my account. My profile was also blocked for a while by Twitter,” Sharma tweeted. “…I have reached out to the platform to investigate some unauthorized tweets made from my account. The investigations are on and I hope some resolution can be found,” she said in another tweet.