NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police on Friday finally caught a youngster who randomly kissed women in public places and posted videos of the prank on his YouTube channel. An associate of his who aided him in filming the prank also has been arrested.
Sumit Kumar Singh, 20, and his accomplice Satyajeet Kadian, 25, are studying for a bachelor’s degree in computer applications at World College of Engineering and Management in Farrukh Nagar in Gurgaon. Joint commissioner of police [crime] Ravindra Yadav said Sumit Singh had apologised for his pranks and took down the videos when they triggered a media furore. He told his interrogators that they carried out pranks like this to make money from his YouTube channel.
“If they get 1,000 hits, they earn something like `700-800,” said the officer.
The arrest has been deferred earlier since Sumit and Satyajeet have told the police that the girls they pranked – supposedly those who had studied with them at Gyan Deep Public School, Gurgaon — were in fact their friends or paid actors.
Police are investigating that angle. “We were assuming that the girls are victims but the two men said they were party to the videos,” officer Yadav said. None of the women in the videos have come forward to lodge police complaints. Sumit’s YouTube channel Crazy Sumit has been active since 2015 and contains 35-40 prank videos. Publicity for his pranks sent traffic soaring. On January 10, the channel had 154,767 subscribers and 5,245,993 views. By Friday, the numbers rose to 155,140 subscribers and 6,965,013 views. Sumit told police that he earned a lot of money for some of his videos, including one in which he pranked his mother.
A case was registered last week against Sumit Singh under Section 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 67 (punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act.
Police said there is a possibility that the charges may now have to be changed. Sumit told police that he wasn’t aware that a case had been registered against him. He thought that since he had uploaded an apology video, the matter was solved.
Sumit got the idea of becoming a prank YouTuber when he met with an accident and was bedridden for two months. During that period, he used to watch prank videos on the social media and discovered that it was a cool way to make money.
“It was also found that YouTube has been organising parties and day seminars to encourage such activities by pranksters. These type of parties are being hosted by a company based in Gurgaon and Mumbai on behalf of YouTube and Google,” said JCP Yadav.
When the Delhi police apprehended Sumit from his house in Sector-5, Ashok Vihar Phase-III in Gurgaon on Friday, they found a trophy given by YouTube congratulating him for crossing one lakh subscribers.