OUR CORRESPONDENT
ITANAGAR: Ludhiana Police on Tuesday arrested YouTuber Paras Singh and took him into custody for racial slur against Arunachal Pradesh MLA Ninong Ering and inciting ill will and hatred towards the people of the frontier state, a senior police official informed here.
Ludhiana police under close monitoring of Arunachal police arrested Paras after tracing his whereabouts, as he was on the run since Monday, Inspector General of Police (Law & Order) Chuku Apa told reporters here.
"A three-member team of Special Investigating team (SIT) of the state police had left for Ludhiana on Monday and will reach the city by Wednesday. The team will produced Paras Singh before the court seeking five-day transit remand so that he can be brought to the state," Apa disclosed.
"We will have to see the court decision for his transit remand and will try our best to bring him to the state," the IGP said and added that Singh is not a minor as he is 25 years old.
Apa added that as many as ten FIRs were lodged in various police stations in the state against the YouTuber but the department after taking suo-moto cognisance of the case, registered a single case with the SIT under three sections of IPC.
Apa appreciated the Ludhiana police for its cooperation in the case and further cautioned the people of the state not to post any offensive comments related to the case in social media, saying that such hatred comment and posts are also punishable under the relevant sections of law.
Union Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs Kiren Rijiju, who hails from Arunachal Pradesh, taking to twitter said that Punjab Police rigorously searched and taken Paras Singh under custody.
"Arunachal Pradesh Police is reaching Punjab. I've spoken to Police Commissioner of Ludhiana for urgent judicial process for transit remand as it's inter-state arrest so that he can be brought to Arunachal Pradesh," Rijiju tweeted.
The union minister further said that "the home ministry had already issued strong advisories to all states and UTs to ensure the protection and dignity of the North-East people."
The Arunachal Pradesh government on Monday filed a case against the social media influencer for his alleged racial remarks against the Congress MLA, and 'ill will towards the people of the state'.
Paras Singh, who goes by the name 'Paras Official' on his YouTube channel, had in a video posted on Sunday termed Congress MLA Ninong Ering a 'non-Indian' and apparently claimed the 'state was a part of China', sparking furore among Arunchalees as well as people from other parts of the country.
In yet another video, posted earlier on Monday, Paras Singh had apologised for his comments.
Paras made the comments while reacting to a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi by Ering recently, wherein the latter had asked the PM to ban the re-launch of PUBG Mobile India's new avatar Battlegrounds Mobile India.
Ering had reasoned that the game was aimed at deceiving the government and citizens and should be banned in the country.
The former union minister had also said that "re-launching the game was a mere illusion and a trick to collect user data of the citizens, including children and transfer it to foreign companies and the Chinese government."