Hindustani Bhau, arrested for 'inciting' student protests in Maharashtra, granted bail

The YouTube personality, whose real name is Vikas Fhatak, was arrested on February 1, a day after four cities in the state, including Mumbai, witnessed protests against offline exams.

YouTube personality Hindustani Bhau was on Thursday granted bail by a sessions court in Mumbai, nearly two weeks after he was arrested by Dharavi Police for allegedly inciting students in Maharashtra to protest against offline exams, and demand that their papers be held online instead.

YouTuber Vikas Fhatak aka ‘Hindustani Bhau’

“Mumbai sessions court grants bail to Vikas Fhatak alias Hindustani Bhau in the matter of Dharavi students orotest over online exams. He was arrested on February 1 by Dharavi Police,” news agency ANI quoted advocate Aniket Nikam, who is representing Fhatak, as saying.

Hindustani Bhau was arrested on February 1, a day after students protested in Mumbai, Nagpur, Aurangabad and Osmanabad demanding cancellation of offline exams. The protest in Nagpur turned violent, with some protestors pelting stones and damaging a school bus.

According to police, Fhatak, who is also a former contestant on the reality TV show Bigg Boss, released a video, in which he said that if the mode of exams was not changed, he would protest outside the house of Varsha Gaikwad, Maharashtra's minister of education.

After the video went viral, students protested outside Gaikwad's residence, in Mumbai's Dharavi.

On February 2, the police booked Fhatak under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).