KANNUR: Known as E bull jetters, YouTubers Ebin Varghese and Libin Varghese never let go of a chance to spice up their videos and make them popular. But when they decided to go live on Monday with a different incident, they ended up earning more ‘dislikes’ than ‘likes’ on social media.
The venue was the Kannur RTO office. The police arrested the brothers, hailing from Vilamana near Iritty, after they barged into the office, disrupted its functioning and threatened the officers for taking their modified van ‘Napoleon’ into custody citing violation and for not paying tax.
They recorded all that on their mobile phones. A commotion followed as their fans reached the scene. As the brothers were arrested and taken to the police vehicle, they protested, shouted, cried and tried to record that as well, saying the police and the Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) were pulling them up unnecessarily. The brothers were produced before the Kannur First Class Judicial Magistrate Court and were remanded for two weeks.
The violations included changing the colour of the vehicle, installing high-power headlights, applying body graphics and attaching a bicycle posing danger to other vehicles on the road.
‘It was planned, they had come with 20 people’
The enforcement wing of the MVD, which had taken the vehicle into custody and slapped a fine of Rs 42,000 on Ebin and Libin as per the transport commissioner’s order, asked the brothers to turn up at the Kannur RTO office as part of the proceedings. The office, however, denied any wrongdoing on Monday.
“The officials did not do anything to provoke them, but the brothers had come to the office prepared,” said Motor Vehicle Inspector V T Padmalal.
“They altered and modified their van which is illegal. Though we tried to convince them about the official procedure regarding such violations, they started creating scenes unmindful of our explanations. We think it was planned as they had come with around 20 persons who tried to record their act from various angles”, said Padmalal. “Our report on their violations is not final. They could’ve challenged it at court. Instead, they tried to threaten us and enact a drama here,” said the official. Kannur town station house officer Sreejith Koderi said: “We got a complaint from the RTO regarding the brothers’ attempt to disrupt the proceedings at the RTO office. They also violated Covid protocol.”