Pune activist arrested for allegedly derogatory remarks about minister, corporator

Social activist Santosh Pandit was arrested by the Pune Police at 1 am on Thursday for making allegedly defamatory and obscene remarks about state Higher Education Minister Chandrakant Patil and a woman corporator, The Times of India reported.

Pandit posts videos on social media about civic problems and alleged violations of traffic rules by public representatives in Pune. His YouTube channel has 13 lakh subscribers and 117 crore total views.

The complaint against him was filed by a corporator, who is an associate of the minister, the newspaper reported. The complainant alleged that Pandit had made derogatory remarks about Patil, a Bharatiya Janata Party leader, in a video.

This was done to tarnish Patil’s image, the newspaper quoted the complainant as alleging.

It was unclear which video the complaint was referring to. In recent days, Pandit had posted a video criticising the quality of infrastructure projects in Pune’s Kothrud area, of which Patil is the MLA.

Pandit has been booked under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to making sexually-coloured remarks, defamation and insult with intent to provoke breach of the public peace, The Times of India reported. He was also booked under the Information Technology Act for transmitting allegedly obscene material.

Acting on the complaint, the police detained Pandit at 1 am from his Pune home, showed a...

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