YouTuber, mother arrested for animal cruelty the same day, clarify police

The police on Monday said the Geeta Sharma, the mother of Delhi YouTuber Gaurav Sharma, who was arrested last month for tying his pet dog to hydrogen balloons --in an attempt to make the dog “fly”-- and posting a video of the act on YouTube, was arrested the same day as her son

The police on Monday said the Geeta Sharma, the mother of Delhi YouTuber Gaurav Sharma, who was arrested last month for tying his pet dog to hydrogen balloons --in an attempt to make the dog “fly”-- and posting a video of the act on YouTube, was arrested the same day as her son.

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The police clarification came after social media posts claimed that the woman, despite being a party to the act, was arrested “only a few days ago”. Police said Geeta was arrested within a few hours after her son’s arrest on May 27. Both have been booked under the Prevention of Animal Cruelty Act and are currently out on bail.

Police had arrested Gaurav, after many YouTube influencers shared Gaurav’s video of the dog tied to hydrogen balloons and criticised him for his “inhuman” act. Taking suo motu cognisance of the videos, police registered an FIR and arrested him. Gaurav, who runs YouTube channel, GAURAVZONE, and has 4.15 million subscribers, had deleted the video after coming under fire online, police said. He later uploaded another video claiming that he had taken all safety precautions but found no support from his subscribers, who continued to call him out for his cruelty, police said.

Police said there is a trend of uploading videos of small dogs tied to helium balloons in some foreign countries. While they usually draw a lot of clicks, they also draw flak for animal cruelty. In the second apology video, Gaurav acknowledges that he was influenced by such foreign videos, police said.

The video, which is still available on YouTube, shows Gaurav and Geeta buying hydrogen balloons, which he explains are less expensive than helium ones. The video then shows Gaurav tying his dog to a bunch of balloons and taking it to the park. The dog is seen having difficulty staying on the ground as the balloons pick it up. It is further seen flaying its limbs and as the balloons gain height. The dog floats up to the second floor of a building, where it crashes against the balcony railings before being brought down eventually.