Chennai police arrest 'toxic' YouTuber and PUBG gamer Madhan in Dharmapuri

CHENNAI: A Chennai police team on Friday morning arrested PUBG gamer Madhan Manikkam from the house of one of his relatives in Dharmapuri. A special police team from the CCB nabbed Madhan minutes after his lawyer had moved the Madras High Court for anticipatory bail. He was booked by the police after it recently came to light that he was indulging in obscene chats when playing PUBG online with others and sharing the same on YouTube also.

According to the sources, police narrowed down on Madhan on Thursday night and knowing that he would be nabbed soon, his counsel moved the Madras High Court for anticipatory bail. Before the bail petition, the police nabbed Madhan and Justice M Dhandapani observed that the anticipatory bail petition was 'infructuous' since the accused was already arrested before the hearing.

Police sources said they are bringing Madhan to Chennai and he will be later produced before a judicial magistrate. Police had registered cases under different sections of the IPC including use of obscene words and cheating, Information Technology Act and The Indecent Representation of Women Prohibition Act, 1986.

On Wednesday, the Central Crime Branch arrested Madhan’s wife Kruthika after it was found during investigation that it was she who often conversed with Madhan in foul language in the videos.

The police on Tuesday registered a case against the PUBG gamer on charges of using obscene language in his gaming videos that were uploaded on YouTube also.

The police alleged that they have received over 100 complaints from different localities.

The Chennai police on Wednesday arrested 26-year-old Kruthika from their residence in Salem. Sources said that she was brought to Chennai along with Madhan's father and brother. She was interrogated and remanded in judicial custody.

A police officer privy to the case said, "They did this to make the channel popular. Kruthika is also the admin of the channel and uploaded the videos on YouTube."

Sources added that when they arrested Madhan, he allegedly pleaded that he did not realise that most of his viewers are minors or children.

Police also added that Madhan and Kruthika are engineering graduates and have completed Electronics and Communications Engineering. A native of Salem, Madan is a full-time YouTuber and posts PUBG videos on his channel called 'Toxic Madan 18+'.

Madhan has over 8 lakh subscribers on his YouTube channel. The majority of the complaints were on the obscene chats but some also alleged they were cheated.