Noida: A YouTuber and his friend were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly misbehaving with a police officer and obstructing traffic while recording videos of the public in Noida Sector 60, police said.
Traffic police officials, however, denied that any traffic congestion was reported at the spot.
The police identified the YouTuber Shyam as Meera Singh. “On Wednesday, around 4pm, Singh and his friend were recording videos of the public in Sector 60. Due to their presence, nearly 80 people gathered at the junction, which affected the traffic flow,” said Manisha Singh, additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP), Noida.
“On noticing the traffic flow getting affected due to public congregation, a police officer deployed there asked the YouTuber to move aside or stop recording as it was disrupting traffic. The YouTuber said that he was a media person and misbehaved with the officer on being asked to show his identity card. He also said how could the officer stop him from recording video,” the ADCP added.
Another officer aware of the incident while requesting anonymity, said, “The YouTuber turned furious over the police officer, and asked if the Colonial rule was persisting. Soon, the situation escalated and he was detained.”
Police said both the YouTuber and his colleague were taken to Sector 58 police station, and a case under Section 170 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Suraksha Sanhita (arrest to prevent the commission of a cognizable offence) was registered. They were later directed to approach the deputy commissioner of police’s office in Noida Sector 6, to sign a bond from where they were released.
Second officer part of the investigation said that apart from a cognizable offence, another case was also being registered against them. However, police officers later did not confirm the sections and said that the decision was being taken by senior police officials to register the case. Till 8 pm, no case was registered.
Noida deputy commissioner of police Saad Miya Khan, did not revert to HT’s calls or messages for a comment on the matter.
Later, talking to HT, Singh, with 316,000 followers on Instagram and 360,000 on X, said that he and his colleague were released at 9pm after five hours.
“I, along with my two colleagues, including a woman, was recording a video byte of a single man when a PCR approached us, and the police officer started demanding our IDs. When we questioned him, he called more police force to the spot and started threatening us that they could book us on charges of BNS,” he said.
“As I started recording his threat, they took me and my colleague to Sector 58 police station and misbehaved,” he added.
On March 8, Singh had uploaded a video on social media alleging that the government had taken down his criticism video related to the ongoing US-Israel-Iran war.
However, ADCP Singh denied the allegation, saying, “The arrest was not associated with any previous incident. It was made due to obstructing traffic and misbehaving with police.”
Meanwhile, a traffic police officer aware of the traffic situation in Sector 60, requesting anonymity, told HT, “No such traffic congestion was reported due to the YouTuber at the spot. The case purely belonged to the local police, and they took him into custody.”