E-Paper
Delhi YouTuber, 32, held for stalking women, uploading harassment videos
The YouTube channel has more than 72,000 subscribers and a combined 9 million views on all his videos, while the Facebook page has more than 2 lakh followers.
The Delhi Police on Saturday arrested a 32-year-old YouTuber for allegedly posting videos of stalking and harassing women and minor girls on the streets of Delhi, officers said.
Gurman Singh, a resident of the Subhash Nagar area, is accused of running a YouTube channel and Facebook page called Road Safety Waala, where he allegedly uploaded videos without the consent of the women.
The YouTube channel has more than 72,000 subscribers and a combined 9 million views on all his videos, while the Facebook page has more than 2 lakh followers.
Deputy commissioner of police (west) Hareshwar Swami said Singh was named in multiple complaints of targeting women riders and minor girls on roads. He allegedly targeted bikes or vehicles with women in them deliberately and harassed them.
Senior police officers said that on June 2, a man approached the cyber police alleging that two unknown riders had intentionally hit his minor daughter’s scooty and then stalked them, passing inappropriate remarks and using abusive language.
“The father said that he found videos of his daughters had been uploaded on YouTube ID @bikeronroad33 and on a Facebook page titled ‘Road Safety Wala’. We lodged a case under the POCSO Act. During the initial scrutiny of the social media profiles, it was observed that the account primarily featured videos targeting women riders and minor girls,” the DCP said.
A team led by Inspector Vikas Kumar Buldak from the cyber police station found several videos uploaded by Singh in which he would strike up conversations with women and girls after hitting their vehicles. “He would first say ‘Sorry didi’ and then follow them, pass some lewd remarks or try to get their personal details. The investigation involved extensive digital and technical analysis of the social media content and associated electronic evidence,” said an officer.
Police nabbed Singh from his residence on Friday.
During interrogation and subsequent search, police recovered a mobile phone from his possession.
“Further examination led to the recovery of multiple videos, screenshots, account-related data and other digital evidence allegedly linking the accused to the creation, possession and uploading of the objectionable content,” the DCP said.
“During interrogation, the accused allegedly disclosed that he created such videos with the objective of increasing his social media followers, generating viral content and earning revenue through monetisation on Facebook and YouTube. He further disclosed that he deliberately targeted women riders to attract greater online engagement and for personal gratification,” he added.
Police said necessary action has been initiated to take down all his accounts.
