Hours after he was slammed for trolling a 20-year-old Delhi University student for her stand against the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, Bollywood actor Randeep Hooda released a statement claiming he was just laughing at a witty joke.

“Don’t hang me over a laugh!” wrote the 40-year-old actor in his Facebook page on Monday night. “I’m being held responsible for instigating hate threats against a young girl, shockingly by the girl herself. That’s absolutely untrue.”

Hooda took to Facebook on Monday to clarify that him standing up for Sehwag was not a justification of the violence that broke outside Ramjas College, neither was he being insensitive to the daughter of a soldier who gave his life for the country. 

He also wrote that while he condemned violence, he and Sehwag were only exercising their freedom of expression, and had not bullied or trolled Kaur. 

Here is his full post on Facebook.