A YouTuber named Saahil aka Pradeep Choudhary has been arrested by Mumbai Police’s cyber cell from Haryana for allegedly posting abusive content against women on social media.
Choudhary has around 237K subscribers on his YouTube channel. As of now, the channel consists of five videos that cover topics such as Sushant Singh Rajput’s death case, Bollywood’s drug nexus, and coronavirus scam.
According to the police, Choudhary was arrested on Monday after a lawyer complained against the 33-year-old last month.
During the probe, it was revealed that Choudhary had uploaded videos on his social media accounts wherein women were abused.
He currently has over 40K followers on Instagram.
According to an official, "In one of the videos, the accused had also posed as a journalist associated with a national news channel and spread abusive content. As a stern action against these acts, the accused was held from Faridabad, Haryana and brought to Mumbai."
Police said that Choudhary confessed of uploading the videos to attract followers. After his arrest, police deleted the videos in question and blocked his social media accounts for the probe. "We have arrested the accused and probe is underway," said a senior official.
Soon after his arrest, the social media went on a frenzy wherein they demanded justice, with a hashtag trending #ReleaseSaahilChoudhary. Apparently, the YouTuber had posted pictures of himself on a flight when he was on his way to Mumbai with policemen.
Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut also shared the same on her Twitter account and wrote, “What is this gunda raaj going on in Mumbai? No one can question world’s most incompetent CM and his team? What will they do to us? Break our houses and kill us? @INCIndia who is answerable for this? #istandwithsaahilchoudhary”
“Somebody random files a FIR against Saahil for questioning Maha Government’s work which is his democratic right and Shaahil is jailed immediately but #PayalGhosh has filed a FIR against #AnuragKashyap many days ago for rape but he is roaming free. Kya hai yeh sab @INCIndia?” added Ranaut.
Choudhary was booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act for insulting a woman's modesty using word, gesture or act, along with intentional insult and spreading defamatory, mischievous content.
He was produced in a local magistrate court and remanded in police custody till October 1.
This isn’t the first time Saahil has headlined for controversial statements. In 2018, he accused fashion designer Rohit Verma of alleged sexual assault under the MeToo Movement.
In an interview to ZoomTV, Choudhary narrated an incident and accused Verma of trying to kiss him twice. He claimed that Rohit behaved with him inappropriately and intended to something sexually weird with him at the designer's place.
Saahil also claimed that such behaviour is common in the modelling industry and that people openly talk about it. He also named a couple of coordinators in this video, who he claims asked for ‘hot photos.’
