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Russian circus artist and YouTuber arrested after merry-go-round at Imperial Towers
Roman Proshin, 33, and Maksim Shcherbakov, 25, secured an entry into the 60-storey Imperial on Monday evening by hoodwinking the security staff. The twin towers are home to some of Mumbai’s top stars from banking and finance, and have a high level of security which the duo breached
Mumbai: A stunt by two Russian YouTubers to film the Mumbai skyline from one of the city’s tallest buildings went awry when they were chased by security guards forcing one of them to jump off the sixth floor onto an adjoining hillock.
They two men were arrested and granted bail a day later by the Girgaon Metropolitan Magistrate court on Tuesday evening.
Roman Proshin, 33, and Maksim Shcherbakov, 25, secured an entry into the 60-storey Imperial on Monday evening by hoodwinking the security staff. The twin towers are home to some of Mumbai’s top stars from banking and finance, and have a high level of security which the duo breached. They rode the elevator to the 50th floor from where took the stairs hoping to reach the building’s famous antenna spire which is 256 meters high.
“On 57th floor, an alert security guard, Amol Ingale, saw them moving around and he got suspicious When Ingale tried to stop them, they tried to escape. Ingale managed to catch hold of one of them, later identified as Proshin, in the stairwell,” said senior police inspector of Tardeo police station, Vivek Shende. Proshin’s partner Maksim who had been arrested last year for performing dangerous stunts on the Bandra-Worli Sealink, escaped the security and he first ran up to the 60th floor of the building and with security hot in pursuit, ran down to the 58th floor where Ingale again tried to stop him but couldn’t succeed. In the pushing and pulling, Roman Proshin too freed himself from Ingale’s grip and ran down the stairs.
While the duo thus ran all around the building, the security tracked them on the CCTV network and used another way leading via the parking lot on the sixth floor, to nab them. They caught Proshin on the 6th floor car park but Maksim, the younger of the two, escaped and then leaped off the 6th floor to land on the adjoining hillock, and where he hid behind some bushes.
The police, which had arrived by this time, then got Proshin to speak to his compatriot on the PA system and convince him to come out. “We also told him it was dangerous to hide on the hillock and we said his friend had suffered injuries. He came out after about 20 minutes or so,” said a police officer from Tardeo police station.
“Previously too people have tried to enter the building for performing dangerous stunts and filming themselves. Since a strong message needs to be given to such people we registered an offence under sections 452 (house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code,” said inspector Shende. They will be released upon furnishing bonds of ₹15000 each. The Russian consulate has also been informed about their arrest.
