Ahmedabad: A 78-year old person from Jivraj Park area has filed a complaint against two youths for making his prank video without his knowledge and making it viral through social media platforms like Youtube and Instagram. A complaint has been filed by the victim senior citizen in Cyber Crime police station of Ahmedabad. The youths are believed originally from Rajasthan.

According to a complainant, he is a retired person who lives with his son. He is the father of three girls who are married. On 9 February, he visited Sanjivani clinic for pain his legs at around 5 pm. As the clinic was closed, he was on way back to his home on foot. A car stopped near him and two youths, one on the driving seat and the other on the back side offered him a lift. As he was tired, the complainant senior citizen sat in the car. Soon he found that the youths started teasing him and talking about Valentine’s Day. One of two youths claimed he suffered a breakup and sought guidance. Then they showed women walking on the roads and asked whether there was one suitable for him? Then they also started teasing the senior citizens in reference to talks about Dhirubhai Ambani.

A Youtuber sitting in the driving seat was identified as Mangesh Prajapati while the other youth on the back seat was identified as Pratik. The senior citizen left the car at Ashapura mandir and reached home.

On 15 February, in the morning when the senior citizen complainant was passing through the street, one Viashaliben informed him that she saw him in a Youtube video which was sent to her by her son Vinit. She also later showed the video to the complainant.

He was shocked to find that without his knowledge, a prank video was captured by a car camera and it was uploaded on Youtube with a title of Car Prank, a comedy video. A glimpse of this video was also put on the Instagram account of Mangesh Prajapati.

Police have registered complaint in this case under sections 501, 66(c) and 67.

Story writer’s view

When we saw the Youtube video, two notorious youths with apparent bad upbringing could be seen hunting for someone to make a prank video. A car camera was fitted in the car. The youths say they are in search of some ‘Bakra’. They approach various persons passing on the road but the people refuse to take a lift and sit in the car. A youth in the driving seat then says, ‘bachi gaya aa badha’. He further decides that he would choose someone to sit in the car who couldn’t resist him or fight back. The youths without knowledge of the old person capture the video. They deliberately enter into a cheap talk with the old person who is a retired employee and father of four persons. Even at the end of the conversation they don’t reveal they were playing a prank and the video was captured. For likes, subscribers and revenue, they crossed all limits of sanity. The incident is an example of how social media, especially Youtube is becoming a nuisance. Police should take strict action in this case. Privacy, sanity, discipline, social conduct all is sacrificed by these unskilled and so called pranksters.

DeshGujarat