Dubai: Indian YouTuber Shubham Mishra, who publicly issued rape and death threats against Mumbai-based standup comedienne Agrima Joshua was finally detained by the Vadodara city police last night, in the state of Gujarat. His arrest came after his abusive video went viral, sparking outrage on Twitter in the country, on Saturday.
As reported previously by Gulf News, Mishra was reacting to a 2019 stand-up act by Joshua, in which she had allegedly joked about Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, a 17th century warrior king, who was the founder of the Maratha kingdom in India.
Apparently, she had joked about speculations over the state government's plans to build a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in the Arabian Sea. This did not go down very well with Maharashtra politicians and others in the state, and Joshua took down the video after facing serious backlash.
Bollywood actress Swara Bhasker, and Indian comedians, Kunal Kamra, Mallika Dua were among the thousands, who expressed anger on Twitter, after Mishra’s abusive YouTube video went viral. Following the outrage, he later deleted the video, and issued an apology.
On Sunday night, in a Twitter post, Vadodara Police posted photos along with the caption: ”Vadodara City Police took suo moto action in respect of an abusive, threatening video which was uploaded and shared on Social media by Shubham Mishra. We have detained him and initiated legal process for registration of FIR against him under relevant section of IPC and IT act.”
Mishra's YouTube account has over 227,000 followers, and the 26-year-old often posts videos in which he makes crude observations about people while sitting in his car, and casually hurling threats.
Twitter users are thanking the police department who arrested the influencer, and said that immediate legal action in such cases was the way forward, to ensure lesser crimes against women in the country.
Twitter user @nishantpant_in posted: “Please ensure that such potential rapists and "bhai" log are put in jail early for a long time so that they start respecting women.”
And, @ramcobain tweeted: “Fabulous work, guys. Now please follow through with a strong FIR (First Information Report) and make sure vulgar bullies like these guys don't get off easy. Please set an example such that these guys - and any others - quake in their masks before daring to utter such filth against any woman.”
Some said that Mishra’s video was an example of influencers’ reckless use of the internet, and started a debate on the importance of discretion and tolerance on social media.
