Sunday Times 2
Zuckerberg stalker launches bizarre counter-lawsuit
Mark Zuckerberg’s alleged stalker is trying to turn the tables by claiming the Facebook founder is trying to destroy his reputation.Mr Zuckerberg got a restraining order against Pradeep Manukonda, 31, last year after the Indian allegedly bombarded him with online messages, sent him flowers and even turned up at his home.
'Faked': The Facebook page that Pradeep Manukonda claims has been set up in his name by Mr Zuckerberg alleging that he is a member of al Qaeda
Mr Manukonda eventually agreed to return to his home country, but he has now filed suit in an Indian court accusing Mr Zuckerberg of responsibility of a number of attacks against him.As well as one attack in which he alleges he was ‘stabbed from the back side’, he also accuses Mr Zuckerberg of making a fake Facebook page that says he is a member of al-Qaeda, TMZ reported.
Mr Manukonda has already convinced a judge to issue a court order barring Mr Zuckerberg from doing anything that damages his reputation, TMZ said.
Mr Zuckerberg, 28, first sought a restraining order against Mr Manukonda in February last year, after the obsessed fan tracked him down on his own social network.
The internet billionaire claimed he was fearful of his safety after Mr Manukonda inundated him with online messages.
Mr Zuckerberg obtained a restraining order banning Mr Manukonda from going within 300 yards of him, his sister Randi Zuckerberg and his then-girlfriend Priscilla Chan, to whom he is now married.
The Facebook supremo filed legal papers claiming the stalker had tried to ‘follow, surveil and contact Mr Zuckerberg using language threatening his personal safety’, gossip website TMZ claimed.Mr Manukonda is said to have tried to visit Mr Zuckerberg at Facebook offices in Palo Alto, California, to ask for money for his family.
According to the legal documents, Facebook security also caught Mr Manudoka at Mr Zuckerberg’s modest four-bedroom home in Palo Alto on January 24 last year.
Security are understood to have caught the alleged stalker just as he was about to walk up the front steps.
Police gave Mr Manukonda a verbal warning but Mr Zuckerberg claimed he continued to contact him through email and with a hand-written letter on January 28.
The handwritten note read: ‘Thank you for your valuable time and attention towards my problem.
‘I am indeed very grateful to you. If I get a chance to work with you in the near future it would be my honour. I know I am working with a man of values. Thank you for being a source of inspiration to all of us.’
In one of his Facebook messages to Mr Zuckerberg, Mr Manukonda wrote: ‘I owe my entire life at your service. Please help me, then I am ready to die for you. Please understand my pain.’
In a message to Randi Zuckerberg, he wrote: ‘I really need your help…my dear sister’.A hearing on Mr Manukonda’s lawsuit against Mr Zuckerberg is scheduled for next week in India.
© Daily Mail, London
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