Telangana Police arrest absconding YouTuber in Bangalore

Hyderabad, July 11: Telangana State Cyber Security Bureau has arrested YouTuber Praneeth Hanumantu in Bangalore for vulgar and obscene comments on a father-daughter relationship.

Shikha Goel, Director of Telangana Cyber Security Bureau, said the accused was being produced before the local magistrate in Bangalore for a transit warrant. The official said efforts were on to apprehend the remaining accused.

Praneeth, 29, a native of Andhra Pradesh and resident of Hyderabad, is the main accused in the FIR registered by Telangana Cyber Security Bureau on July 7 under sections 67B of the Information Technology Act, 294 of the Indian Penal Code, 79 of BNS and 13 (c)of the POCSO Act.

He has been accused since the day the matter came to light. This case involves a group of individuals engaged in vulgar and obscene conversations about a father-daughter relationship on a YouTube podcast, said the director.

The FIR was registered after Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka promised action when actor Sai Dharam Tej reported child abuse online.

Sai Dharam Tej took to ‘X’ to express outrage and tagged the chief ministers and deputy chief ministers of both the Telugu states to demand necessary action to curb horrific acts like this in future.

“This is beyond gruesome, disgusting and scary. Monsters like these go unnoticed on the very much utilised social platform doing child abuse in the disguise of so-called Fun & Dank. Child Safety is the need of the hour,” he wrote while sharing a video of a Telugu YouTuber making inappropriate comments on a video that features a father and his daughter.