KANNUR: It was quite baffling to find residents of his native Bikkiriyan Parambu, in Mangad, near Kalliasseri, trying to distance themselves from Muhammad Nihad. Even a local political activist, who was willing to share details of the controversial Youtuber, popularly known by his alias, ‘Thoppi’, seemed to be mostly in the dark about his early life.
Like most others, the only key detail he seemed to possess involved Thoppi being thrown out from school for stealing money from his father, a peon at the same school.
“No, please don’t mention the names of the parents. They have been suffering because of him,” he said. Being a disciplinarian, Nihad’s father threw him out of the house for his wayward behaviour. After his eviction from a CBSE school when in class 9, Nihad was admitted to a government school. “But he didn’t complete his SSLC, having discontinued his studies,” said the political functionary, who did not want to be named.
“It was his mother who supported his studies. But he got into bad company and started drifting away from his family. He always felt far from normal and never got along with people. This is a trait he inherited from his family, who never enjoyed a cordial relationship with the people of their area and always kept themselves aloof,” he said.
“It was during the pandemic that Nihad started influencing the youth and young kids through his videos with objectionable content. We came to know about his growing stature as a Youtuber only recently. It is then that we realised that most of his fans are minors,” he added. “Then, one day we heard that he had moved to Kochi to live with his friends.”
According to Satheeshan Neyyan, CPM Mangad branch secretary who lives near Nihad’s home in Bikkiriyan Parambu, though he was aware of his activity, he never thought the content the Youtuber produced would be so objectionable.
Nihad is the elder of two brothers and his mother is a homemaker.
“The family is religiously devout but keeps their distance from other residents, said Satheeshan. The family had moved from Kannur some 15 years ago and bought a house near Mangad Juma Masjid. “There was an issue some 12 years ago, and the party had backed the boy as we thought he was forced into making the mistake,” he said. Since the family is not very sociable, many people in the area don’t even know them, the CPM leader added.
On Friday, Kannapuram police registered a case against Thoppi for posting a video with sleazy dialogue.
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