CUTTACK: After the State capital, videos of youths brandishing weapons in Cuttack has gone viral on social media posing a fresh challenge for the Commissionerate Police. In the short videos uploaded on Instagram under the title ‘Public Sandha’, the youths can be seen brandishing gun and sword while hurling abuses and threats at public places in the city. The videos have reportedly been filmed at three places on the Mahanadi riverbed and Taladanda canal area within Malgodown police limits.
After scanning the video and its link on Instagram, Malgodown police identified six youths involved in filming of the video and rounded them up along with their families and acquaintances on Thursday.“We have detained six persons including a girl aged between 18 and 22 years from Jobra. All of them are being interrogated and their antecedents verified,” said Malgodown IIC Smruti Ranjan Nayak, adding while a fake gun was used in the video, the sword wielded by one of the youths is real.
Even as the youths’ criminal antecedents are yet to be established, preliminary investigation reveals that they had made the video to garner more likes, comments and shares on Instagram. The plastic gun and the sword have been seized and investigation is on to ascertain whether someone else had masterminded the act.
The girl who had shot the videos said she did it for fun and did not know it would go viral on social media putting her and others in trouble. “I helped them in making the video on Diwali. I had come in contact with them a few weeks back and have no other personal connection with them,” the girl told the media while regretting her decision to post it on social media.