Bihar-based YouTuber Manish Kashyap was remanded in 14 days of judicial custody on Tuesday, March 28, for creating and spreading fake videos about migrant workers being attacked in Tamil Nadu. He was brought to Tamil Nadu on Wednesday and has been booked by the Madurai Cybercrime Wing for spreading misinformation. Kashyap had surrendered at Jagdishpur police station in Bihar’s West Champaran on March 18. He will be taken to Tamil Nadu for further questioning and the Tamil Nadu police is expected to produce him in the Madurai Court on March 31, The Hindu reported.
According to The Hindu, during an investigation by the Economic Offences Unit (EOU), it was revealed that Manish Kashyap had political ambitions. The report further said that he tried to get a party ticket from Shiv Sena but was not given one because there were communal cases against him. After he was denied a party ticket, he contested as an independent candidate in 2020.
An EOU official who spoke to The Hindu said that Kashyap wanted to “create a sensation” which is why he began making these videos and spreading them. The EOU had frozen a total of Rs 42.11 lakh in Kashyap’s bank account and said that he had Rs 3,37,496 in his SBI account, Rs 51,069 in his IDFC Bank account, Rs 3,37,463 in his HDFC bank account, and Rs 34,85,909 in his HDFC bank account of Sachtak Foundation, his YouTube channel.
After Manish Kashyap was arrested, the Bihar police registered 13 cases against him while the Tamil Nadu police registered nine cases in connection with the circulation of fake videos about migrant labourers.