YouTuber Bobby Kataria, who drank alcohol on Dehradun streets, to be arrested soon

Dehradun, Aug 19: The Uttarakhand Police will soon arrest YouTuber Bobby Kataria for drinking alcohol and threatening the police while sitting on a chair and stopping traffic in the middle of the road in the state capital Dehradun.

Cantt Police Station has obtained a non-bailable warrant against Kataria from the District Court. SHO Rajendra Singh Rawat on Thursday informed news agency ANI that teams have been sent to Haryana and its other locations for his arrest.

A case has been registered against Kataria under sections 290 (public nuisance), 510 (drinking in public place), 336 (endangering human life or the personal safety of others) and 342 (wrongfully confining a person) of the Indian Penal Code and section 67 of the IT Act.

The video uploaded on his Instagram account recently also had a song playing in the background that said "Roads Apne baap ki".

As the liquor consuming video went viral, there were sharp reactions from locals who accused him of destroying the culture of 'Devbhoomi'.

Kataria was in the news after he was allegedly found to be smoking inside a SpiceJet flight that surfaced on the internet. The airline later said that the action was taken as the passenger was put on a no-flying list by the airline for 15 days in February 2022.

However, the accused social media influencer Balvinder Kataria alias Bobby Kataria claimed that it was a dummy plane and it was a part of his shooting in Dubai. "The video in which I was seen smoking is not a normal aeroplane, it was a dummy plane and that was a part of my shooting in Dubai. Taking lighter inside the plane is not allowed," said Kataria.

In the video, Kataria was seen lying down on the aircraft seat and lighting a cigarette and taking a couple of puffs. In a statement SpiceJet said, the matter had been investigated thoroughly in January 2022 when the video was brought to our notice and a complaint had been filed by the airline with the Udyog Vihar police station in Gurugram.

The matter came to the airline's notice on January 24, 2022, through social media posts. Defending himself, Kataria said that the video in question is an old video shot in Dubai. "The video in which I was seen smoking is not a normal airplane, it was a dummy plane and that was a part of my shooting in Dubai. I want to ask everyone; how can a lighter make its way into an airplane? It would be detected by a scanner. A cigarette still one can carry, but not a lighter. It was shot in 2019 or 2020," Kataria had said.