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 Subhash Nagar area, is accused of running a YouTube channel and a Facebook page called Road Safety Waala, where he allegedly uploaded videos without the consent of women.
The YouTube channel has more than 72,000 subscribers and a total of 9 million views of all his videos, while the Facebook page has more than 2 thousand followers.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Hareshwar Swamy said that Singh was named in multiple complaints regarding targeting of women bikers and minor girls on roads. He allegedly deliberately targeted bikes or vehicles with women inside and harassed them.
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Senior police officers said that on June 2, a man approached the cyber police alleging that two unidentified riders intentionally hit his minor daughter’s scooter and then chased them, made inappropriate remarks and used abusive language.
“The father said that he found videos of his daughters uploaded on the YouTube handle @bikeronroad33 and on a Facebook page titled ‘Road Safety Wala’. We have filed a case under the POCSO Act. During initial scrutiny of the social media profiles, it was observed that the account primarily had videos targeting female bikers and minor girls,” the DCP said.
A team led by Inspector Vikas Kumar Boldak of the Cyber Police Station found several videos uploaded by Singh in which he was initiating conversations with women and girls after ramming into their cars. “He would first say ‘sorry Didi’ and then follow them, pass some obscene remarks or try to get their personal details. The investigation involved extensive digital and technical analysis of the social media content and electronic evidence associated with it,” an officer said.
Police arrested Singh from his residence on Friday.
During the investigation and subsequent search, police found a mobile phone in his possession.
“Further examination led to the recovery of several videos, screenshots, account-related data and other digital evidence that allegedly links the accused to the creation, possession and uploading of the objectionable content,” the DCP said.
He added: “During interrogation, the accused revealed that he created such videos with the aim of increasing his followers on social media, generating viral content and earning revenue through monetization on Facebook and YouTube. He also revealed that he deliberately targeted female cyclists to attract more online engagement and to please the character.”
The police said that the necessary measures had been taken to withdraw all his accounts.
