Arunachal police arrest Punjab YouTuber for racial slur against MLA, state's people

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Arunachal Pradesh police arrested a 22-year-old YouTuber of Punjab for a racial slur against Congress MLA Ninong Ering and the people of the northeastern state, officials said here on Friday.

Police officials in Itanagar said that a four-member SIT led by Inspector Techi Vijay went to Punjab and arrested YouTuber Paras Singh from Ludhiana on Wednesday. On Friday he was produced in the Chief Judicial Magistrate court at Yupia in Papum Pare district in Arunachal. A laptop, one tab and three mobile phones were seized from his possession. The court granted a day's police custody of Paras Singh, who reportedly cast a racial slur on Congress legislator Ninong Ering and the people of Arunachal Pradesh in a video posted in his YouTube accounts.

Arunachal Pradesh police spokesman Rohit Rajbir Singh said that recently Ering wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the topic of PUBG re-launch and posted the letter on his Twitter account also. Ering in his May 22 tweet had said: "Requested PMO India Narendra Modi ji to not allow Chinese deception Battlegrounds Mobile India. It is a big threat to the security of India & privacy of our citizens and a way to circumvent & disregard our laws."

Police spokesman Rohit Rajbir Singh, who is also the Superintendent of Police (SIT), said that the accused has two accounts on YouTube with 4.67 lakh and 3.94 lakh subscribers and in the two accounts there are 382 videos. His account "Paras official'' has 3.4 million viewers and "Paras Gamer" has 7.1 million viewers and most of his videos are aimed at generating quick money.

"His account "Paras Gamers" is used for showing game play of PUBG only and the account "Paras Officials" is used for showing tips, tricks, informing about new dresses, weapons, skins of games like COD mobile, PUBG, unboxing videos. On an average, accused Paras earns around Rs 20,000 to 25,000 per month from his videos."

The police official said that Paras, who studied up to class ten and lives with his mother, made this controversial video on which the case has been registered, to gain widespread attention and views, so that his income could be maximised. "His motive was that he became enraged after reading the MLA's letter about PUBG, as banning PUBG would have meant sure shot loss in income," the officer said.

Two more YouTubers are also on the radar of the Arunachal Pradesh police for racial comments against Ering, a former Lok Sabha member. Their YouTube channels are GTX Preet and 420 Gaming. - IANS