Saahil Choudhary, a Delhi-based model and YouTuber, was arrested on Monday by the cyber cell of Mumbai Police for posting abusive content against women on social media. On his Instagram handle, he identifies himself as a journalist. After his arrest Kangana Ranaut demanded justice for Choudhary and tweeted, "What is this gunda raaj going on in Mumbai?" She asserted that he was arrested for questioning the Maharashtra government’s work, “which is his democratic right.”
For the uninformed, Pradeep Mohinder Singh Choudhary, popularly known as Saahil Choudhary, has been posting several videos on trending topics, including the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput and the alleged Bollywood-drug probe, on his YouTube channel. A resident of Faridabad, Choudhary’s YouTube channel has around 237K subscribers and over 40K followers on Instagram.
On August 22, a woman reportedly complained to the cyber cell about one of his latest videos, the police said. She alleged that it contains abusive language. He was arrested under sections 509, 505 (2), 500, 501, 504 and 34 of IPC. He has also been charged under Section 67 of Information Technology Act, 2000.
According to an official, “In one of the videos, the accused had also posed as a journalist associated with a national news channel and spread abusive content. As a stern action against these acts, the accused was held from Faridabad, Haryana and brought to Mumbai.”
Reportedly, 33-year-old Chaudhary, confessed to uploading these videos to increase the number of subscribers on YouTube.
Choudhary had earlier appeared in an interview with &feature=emb_logo">ZoomTV, in which he opened up about an incident against fashion designer Rohit Verma in 2018. He alleged that Verma tried to kiss him twice and alleged sexual assault against him during the #MeToo Movement.
Kangana supports Saahil
It was immediately after the news of his arrest broke out that a hashtag #ReleaseSaahilChoudhary started trending and many demanded justice for him. Ranaut said, "No one can question the world’s most incompetent CM and his team? What will they do to us? Break our houses and kill us?”
What is this gunda raaj going on in Mumbai? No one can question world’s most incompetent CM and his team? What will they do to us? Break our houses and kill us? @INCIndia who is answerable for this? #istandwithsaahilchoudhary https://t.co/sthXJK0jzl
— Kangana Ranaut (@KanganaTeam) September 29, 2020
In another tweet she wrote, "Somebody random files an FIR against Saahil for questioning Maha Government’s work which is his democratic right and Shaahil is jailed immediately but #PayalGhosh has filed an FIR against #AnuragKashyap many days ago for rape but he is roaming free. Kya hai yeh sab INCIndia?”
He was booked for "insulting a woman's modesty using word, gesture or act, along with intentional insult and spreading defamatory, mischievous content."
After his arrest, the YouTuber was brought to Mumbai and will be in police custody till October 1, as per sources.