The joke’s gone rogue

Three youths arrested for pranking motormen and commuters, whose startled videos the group would upload on YouTube.

Three youths who would prank motormen and train commuters, and upload their startled videos on YouTube, were arrested on Monday by the Railway Protection Force (RPF). Vikhroli residents Abhishek Kuniyil, 23, Rahul Godse, 19, and Shubham Shukla, 19, have been charged under the Railway Act sections 145(b) for creating nuisance, 146 (obstructing a railway employee in his duties), 153 (endangering safety of passengers), and 147 (trespassing). The three were granted bail the same day.

A worrying trend

The railway police said the three youths were inspired by similar videos uploaded on YouTube and social media, where such acts of nuisance received hundreds of ‘likes’. One of the accused, Abhishek Kuniyil, an engineering student, told Mumbai Mirror that he and the co-accused were “inspired” by a college senior who even boasted of getting a sponsor for recording such videos.

“We also wanted to earn money through prank videos and named our group Team Blade. We started off by playing pranks on people in the parks, where we would throw a fake snake at them. One such video got us one lakh views,” Kuniyil said.

The RPF sources said an increasing number of youths, mostly students, indulge in recording and uploading such videos. In this case, the three accused began targeting motormen and local train commuters in 2017, after which five motormen lodged complaints. The group would target motormen at Churchgate and CST stations, attempting to irritate them with inane questions.

In one of the videos, an accused can be heard asking a motorman whether he will allow him to pilot the train. The youth is then heard telling the motorman that he too is a trained motorman, having learnt the nuances on “his brother’s toy train”.

In another video, one of the accused can be seen sitting in a train compartment wearing a helmet. He would then act as if he was suffering from fits, and collapse on a fellow passenger.



The arrests

The first complaint against the group was received in June last year. However, tracking down the accused proved to be a tough ask for the railway cops. RPF Sub-Inspectors Sharad Parad Patil and VK Solanki analysed the videos and tried tracing the youths on social networking sites.

The cops realised that there was a common location in several videos uploaded by the group and traced the spot to Vikhroli. On Monday, the railway cops spotted one of the accused and managed to arrest all three.

The RPF’s senior divisional security commissioner (Central Railway), Sachin Bhalode, said people should realise that motormen function under extreme stress. “The motormen’s primary concerns are commuters’ safety and running the trains as per schedule. Instead of appreciating their efforts, a few miscreants resort to such harassment. It is deplorable,” Bhalode said.

Senior RPF officers pointed out to a few videos doing the rounds on social media, in which a youth can be seen lying on the tracks even as the train moves in opposite direction. In another video, a youth can be heard telling a motorman, “Yeh train Dadar jayegi? Siddhivinayak se prasad le kar aana.”