Arunachal court remands Punjab YouTuber to six days in jail in racial slur case

Itanagar, May 29

A court in Arunachal Pradesh on Saturday remanded Punjab-based YouTuber Paras Singh to six days in judicial custody, a senior police officer said.

Singh, a social media influencer, was produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) court at Yupia near Itanagar.

“The court remanded him to six days in judicial custody. He will be lodged at Jully jail during the period.

Further action, whatever is to be taken, will be decided by the court,” said SP of Special Investigating Team (SIT) Rohit Rajbir Singh.

The court on Friday sent the YouTuber to one-day police custody to investigate the matter of racial remarks he had made against senior Congress MLA Ninong Ering and the people of Arunachal Pradesh.

Singh was brought to Itanagar from Ludhiana in Punjab by the police’s SIT late on Thursday.

The three-member team that brought him to the state was led by inspector Techi Vijay and consisted of constables GL Ray and Aman Kumar Meena.

The superintendent of police said that during interrogation, Singh revealed that he has two accounts on YouTube, both of which were created to “generate quick money”.

“The account with the channel name ‘Paras Official’, having 4.68 lakh subscribers, is used for showing tips, tricks, and informing his subscribers about the new skins of games like Call Of Duty (COD) mobile and PUBG un-boxing videos. The other channel—’Paras Gamers’ with 3.94 lakh subscribers is used to live stream PUBG on YouTube,” the police officer said.

Both the accounts are monetised by YouTube, and he earns Rs 20,000-25,000 a month.

“The YouTuber also disclosed that the controversial video, against which a case has now been registered, was made by him to gain widespread attention and views, so that his monetary income could be maximised,” the SP said.

The SIT has seized a laptop, a tablet and three mobile phones from the YouTuber’s possession for further investigation, the officer added.

The Arunachal Pradesh government on Monday filed a case against Singh for making racial remarks against Ering and inciting ill will and hatred towards the people of the state.

Paras made the comments while reacting to a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi by Ering wherein the MLA had asked the PM to ban the re-launch of PUBG Mobile India’s new avatar — Battlegrounds Mobile India.

Ering had reasoned that the game was aimed at deceiving the government and citizens and should be banned in the country. — PTI