New Delhi: Manish Kashyap, a YouTuber arrested for allegedly spreading fake videos of attacks on Bihar migrant labourers in Tamil Nadu, has been booked under the National Security Act (NSA), the Madurai Police said.
After his arrest from Bihar, a Madurai court Wednesday sent Kashyap to judicial custody till 19 April. He had earlier surrendered on 18 March at a Bihar police station after the Madurai Police registered a case against him. The Bihar Police’s Economic Offences Unit (EOU) then arrested him.
The Bihar YouTuber has now approached the Supreme Court for interim relief from arrest. He has also filed an application seeking to club all the FIRs lodged against him in various places.
Popularly known as ‘Son of Bihar’, Kashyap’s real name is Tripurari Kumar Tiwari. He comes from an engineering background and is known for his loud questions from the ground — be it school, police station, or crime scenes.
In many of his videos, the YouTuber is seen giving ‘advice’ to onlookers, shouting in some and abusing in others. His videos and those of fellow YouTubers regarding the alleged attacks on the migrant workers had sparked a political slugfest in Bihar.
Subsequently, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had sent a team to Tamil Nadu to take stock of the situation. The Tamil Nadu Police chief had come out to clarify that videos showing migrant workers being attacked in the southern state were ‘false’.
His arrest has now left fellow Bihar YouTubers jittery. “I don’t know why they have slapped the NSA (on Kashyap). I am also facing one case in this Tamil Nadu matter. So, I won’t comment more about this,” YouTuber Ravi Bhatt told ThePrint.
Bhatt has more than five lakh subscribers on his YouTube channel.
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Larger-than-life image
Operating with an iPhone and a hand mic, Kashyap was always accompanied by one-two people wherever he went. From Bihar and Jharkhand to Gujarat and Delhi, he traveled by air and big vehicles to make videos for his subscribers.
His large fan following can be gauged from the fact that he has 6 million-plus subscribers on his YouTube channel. But the digital content creator has his fair share of detractors, who despise his style of working.
Take for instance, Nibha Singh. She feels social media influencers have to follow rules given their wide connection with the masses. “It is wrong to do journalism outside the constitutional framework. The government should not be challenged like this. People listen and trust us. As an influencer, there are some responsibilities,” said Nibha, who herself is a YouTuber. “I work alone and differently.”
Kashyap’s journey began in 2017 with a video that he made on a personal episode after a store wasn’t forthcoming on his request to change the battery of his motorcycle.
As the video went viral, the engineering graduate from Pune decided to do full-time recording of videos and change his career focus to pursue issues of public interest.
Kashyap had told ThePrint that he has two teams in Bihar and Delhi. “You shouldn’t ask a man about his salary,” Kashyap had said laughing in response to a query on his earnings.
In the last video posted two weeks ago on his channel ‘Sach Tak’, Kashyap is seen holding some printouts, claiming that these platforms also carried the news of clashes with Bihari migrants in Tamil Nadu.
“You people have brought me to this place in just two years, I have become a topic of discussion. Yuvraj Tejashwi Yadav is also now against me. Well, you (his followers) keep up your love,” Kashyap says in his video.
Brush with controversies
Controversies are not new to the Bihar YouTuber, who first ran foul of a section of the people for abusing Mahatma Gandhi in a video in 2016. Two years later, he was arrested for allegedly vandalising the marble statue of King Edward VII in Bettiah, Bihar.
After the 2019 Pulwama attack, Kashyap had assaulted Kashmiris at a fair in Patna and thrown away their items at the venue. For this ruckus, he went to jail. He also faced a case after he had a fight with a bank manager in 2021. His name had also cropped up for alleged manipulation of money in a crowdfunding case.
“The faster such people go up, the faster they come down. Those who poison the society and spread hatred cannot escape the law for long,” a senior Bihar Police officer told ThePrint, reacting to the arrest of Kashyap.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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