Influencer Ranveer Allahbadia. File
The Supreme Court protected YouTuber Ranveer Allahbadia on Tuesday (February 18, 2025) from arrest in FIRs registered in Maharashtra, Assam, and any filed or to be filed in Jaipur in connection with his controversial remarks on a show ‘India has got Latent’.
A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and N.K. Singh restricted him from participating in any shows for the time being as a condition for his interim protection from arrest. “Stop this show business for the time being,” Justice Kant told Allahbadia’s counsel, advocate Abhinav Chandrachud.
Mr. Allahbadia was directed to submit his passport at the Thane Police Station and must not leave the country without informing the investigating officer and only with the prior permission of the Supreme Court.
The Court further added that no new FIRs would be registered against him on the basis of the same remarks.
The apex court said that Mr. Allahbadia would be at liberty to approach the local police in Thane, Maharashtra for the protection of his life and liberty in the event of any threat so that he is enabled to participate in the investigation.
“If the State is inviting you to join its investigation, the State will provide you security,” Justice Singh observed. Justice Kant said Allahbadi must be “ashamed for the distress he has caused his parents”.
The court underscored that the interim relief of stay on his arrest would be subject to his participation in the investigation and full cooperation. The Bench made it clear that Mr. Allahbadia would not be accompanied by his lawyer inside the police station when he goes there to participate in the investigation.
Lashing out at Mr. Allahbadia, Justice Kant, during the hearing said the comments were perverted and was a cause of shame for the entire society. “There is something very dirty in his mind… Why should the court hear this person?” Justice Kant remarked to Mr. Chandrachud initially during the hearing.
Mr. Chandrachud argued on the point of obscenity. He submitted that a word or picture or a representation cannot be called obscene unless it suggested depravity of the mind or has a tendency to excite overt sexual desire.
He said the show in which the remarks were made was a paid and subscriber-only one. Somebody had recorded the show and taken out an edited version, leading to the registration of FIRs.
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The YouTuber had approached the Supreme Court for protection from arrest and challenging the multiple FIRs registered against him, saying the law was used to harass him and rob him of his personal liberty. He argued that he was facing death threats, threats of acid attack and there was a pattern to the harassment which were serious in nature. People had come to the clinic of his mother, a doctor, to issue threats.
Mr. Allahbadia’s remarks on parents and sex on comedian Samay Raina’s YouTube show ‘India’s Got Latent’ triggered a controversy. Besides Allahbadia and Raina, others named in the case in Assam are Ashish Chanchlani, Jaspreet Singh and Apoorva Makhija. Justice Kant said “the law must take its course in this case. The system will take care…”
Podcaster Allahbadia’s remarks on parents and sex on comedian Samay Raina’s YouTube show ‘India’s Got Latent’ triggered a controversy and several FIRs have been lodged against him and others in various parts of the country.
Published – February 18, 2025 09:53 am IST