‘Freedom fighters’ in police custody over TikTok video

PUDUKKOTTAI: Ever imagined living in the colonial era and being part of the freedom struggle? After all, it is not a crime to imagine oneself as a freedom fighter when they are all looked upon as role models. Two youth in Pudukkottai wouldn’t have imagined beyond that when they shot a TikTok video, enacting as freedom fighters. There was a problem however; they ‘fought for freedom’ at a police station.  

Vetrivel (22) and Mahendran (19) in Pudukkottai realised that freedom struggle could also invite a prison term when the police knocked on their doors on Friday, for alleged violation of the Information Technology Act. It was on June 3, Sempatti police seized the two-wheeler of one Balaiya after he was found travelling without wearing a face mask. The man was asked to bring two witnesses to secure a station bail. That’s how Vetrivel and Mahendran came to the police station.

While leaving the station, the duo felt a creative overdrive. One of them secretly shot a video in which the other one acted as a freedom fighter. Later, they uploaded the video on TikTok. The video shows Vetrivel emerging out of the station as a “victorious freedom fighter”. The accompanying audio says, “He has been to police station several times, but always emerges victorious, as if he fought for the country’s freedom.”

Soon, the video started trending and even gathered over 1,500 likes. Only on Friday, the duo found out that some policemen too were among their viewers. The youth have been arrested under the IT Act (For transmitting obscene material in electronic form). “We are questioning them. In the video, they were acting like rowdies outside the police station,” said Alangudi DSP Muthuraja.

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