Two aspiring rappers found themselves facing the rap for duping a trader of his two cameras, after police gleaned their whereabouts from the duo's loyal YouTube subscriber base. The errant pair, Sandeep Verma and Sadik Ansari, both 23, told police they had allegedly made off with the cameras to shoot videos.
A local vendor, Kunal Kanjia, who rents out cameras, complained to police on November 30 that Verma and Ansari had rented two cameras but had not returned them even after several days and their phones were unreachable. The two had told Kanjia they were taking the cameras for a film shoot and submitted their details. The Aarey Police then registered an offence and launched search to nab them.
As they had switched off their phones, police were unable to trace their mobile location. The addresses given to the vendor and to the mobile services provider also turned out to be bogus. Police then checked CCTV footages near the shop and identified an autorickshaw in which the duo had arrived and tracked down its owner in Malwani. But that didn't help either, as the registered owner told police he had sold his vehicle long ago and had no details of its current owner.
"From our informants, we learnt that the two were aspiring rappers and had a YouTube channel called SandySongs. With the help of our informants we managed to reach their subscribers and those who had 'liked' their videos. Some of them personally knew the duo and led us to them," said Sub-Inspector Ulhas Kholam at Aarey Police Station.
Police first nabbed Ansari, who led them to Verma. "We have recovered both the cameras from them," said Nutan Pawar, senior Inspector at Aarey Police Station.
