YouTuber ‘Toxic Madan,’ a PUBG player and live-streamer, was arrested by the Tamil Nadu police on Friday, 18 June, under charges of using filthy language against women and teenage subscribers of his channel in his videos.
The YouTuber, who had been absconding, was nabbed from Dharmapuri, where he was found staying at a friend’s residence. As per reports, Madan was arrested by the special team of Cyber Crime Wing of Central Crime Branch at 8 am on Friday. He is currently being brought to Chennai.
The Madras High Court has also dismissed his anticipatory bail plea that he had filed against his arrest
Justice M Dhandapani of Madras High Court disposed of Madan's plea as infructuous as he was arrested on Friday morning.
Madan’s arrest came a day after the YouTuber’s wife was taken into custody from Salem by the Tamil Nadu Crime Branch that was formed to search for Madan.
According to reports, the female voice on Madan’s videos belonged to his 25-year-old wife Kruthika, who supported and ran the objectionable YouTube channel with him. The police seized a laptop, a tablet and a phone that the Salem-based couple used to record their videos.
The YouTube channel ‘Toxic Madan’ featured live streamed videos of Madan Kumar Manikyam aka Madan playing PUBG. In his videos, Madan used filthy language and cuss words against women. He even obscenely describes women and adds filthy commentary about their bodies in his videos.
In a video accessed by TNM, Madan says, “All women are prostitutes, you end up marrying any woman and she is a prostitute.”
The police said that the couple had decided to start a YouTube channel to make easy money. They also chose derogatory and abusive and highly misogynistic content for their videos in order to attract attention and gain thousands of subscribers in a short span of time.
After the videos gained popularity, over 150 complaints were filed against the channel, and the cyber crime wing of the Chennai police lodged an FIR. Madan and his wife were both booked under different sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Information and Technology Act and the Representation of Women Act.
The Tamil Nadu State Commission for Protection of Child Rights has also received complaints against the channel. The police have also received complaints against the couple of financial fraud.
(This article was first published in The News Minute and republished here with permission.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)