Mumbai: TikTok star Adnaan Shaikh (24) was on Monday afternoon arrested for performing dangerous stunts without a helmet at Bandra Reclamation road. Shaikh was booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Motor Vehicle (MV) Act after a traffic police constable attached with the Bandra traffic division lodged a complaint.
According to police sources, after Shaikh’s video went viral on the social media platform, TikTok, on Sunday, a police constable, Poonamchand Pawar, from Bandra traffic division reported the incident to her superiors.
Acting on the senior police officer’s instructions, Pawar reported the incident to Bandra police station on Monday afternoon and a case was registered against Shaikh. Soon after Shaikh was booked, a police team went to his Dharavi residence and detained him for questioning. They also searched for the motorcycle used in the video.
After over three hours of questioning, Shaikh was arrested by Bandra police at 4pm. Girish Anavkar, a senior inspector of Bandra police station said, “In one of the three viral videos, Shaikh was seen performing wheelies without a helmet at Bandra Reclamation near Bandra-Worli Sea Link. After the video was presented as evidence, we booked and arrested him on Monday.”
Shaikh was booked under relevant sections of the IPC for rash driving (279) and act endangering life or personal safety of others (336), along with relevant sections of the MV Act for helmet-less riding (129) and driving dangerously (184), said police.
Shaikh has a huge fan following, of more than 8.8 million followers, which means, his acts could directly inspire other youths to replicate it. “We do not want Shaikh’s fans to get tempted to replicate the stunts made by their idol. We want to create awareness among the youth for safe riding/driving, something which was not followed by Shaikh as seen in his stunts,” said Anavkar.
Meanwhile, Bandra police are looking out for the pillion riders seen in the videos for questioning. Police are also trying to identify Shaikh’s motorcycle, which he claims to have sold last month and have asked the Regional Transport Office (RTO) to provide them with the details.