Agartala: YouTuber Bapan Nandi from Tripura’s Udaipur was thrashed and humiliated publicly for casting Hindu models in his Eid music video last Saturday.
The video of him being charged by a group of angry mob and interrogated as to why he had cast the Hindu girls for portraying apparently Muslim characters in the video went viral on social media platforms.
The video, however, drew wide condemnation from the entire YouTube community in Tripura and several content creators have spoken in support of Bapan Nandi.
A specific case has also been lodged against him for defaming the Hindu community.
On being contacted, Nandi said the music video in question was not produced by him. He said he had acted as an artiste like several other models and content creators of Udaipur but the onus was passed on to him.
“The video was posted on my channel a day after it was released on the channel of my friend Siddik who owns the YouTube Channel called Mr Siddik. But the attacks were targeted upon me. I don’t know most of the other crew members and the cast. Each one of us was paid for acting in the song,” said Nandi.
On being asked what happened on Saturday, he said, “The elected Deputy Chief of East Gokul Nagar Panchayat called me to visit his place for some work. We know each other so I went there to discover that around 30 to 40 youths were waiting for me. The Panchayat leader slapped me, thrashed me in front of everyone there. I kept asking what was my fault and explained that the video was produced by another channel and the casting was done by him only but no one was there to hear anything. A case has also been registered against me but for what crime I don’t know.”
Speaking on the issue, police sources said a case was registered on behalf of Vishwa Hindu Parishad against Bapan Nandi.
As soon as the video of Nandi being thrashed was posted online, netizens condemned the violence and called it an ‘attack’ in an attempt of promoting communal harmony.
A number of Youtubers have created videos extending solidarity to Nandi. Even the girls who acted in the video had also issued video statements.
Uma Debnath and Sneha Bhowmik, two models who worked in the music video, also issued video statements and said that they had no objection to portray any character in music videos as the nature of their job demands this kind of transition in roles. They have also categorically said that they were never forced to act in the music video.
Nandi said he had been summoned to the local police station on Wednesday in connection with the FIR filed against him.
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