Praneeth Arrest – Good Job Tollywood!

YouTuber Praneeth Hanumantu was arrested yesterday in Bengaluru by police officers belonging to the Telangana Cyber Crime Department. The YouTuber and three others have been booked under various provisions of the Information Technology Act for making obscene remarks that promote pedophilia and incest on a YouTube channel live stream.

What is notable about this case is the fact that it was brought to public attention through the activism of innumerable social media accounts. But the police really stood up and took cognizance of the case at hand when Tollywood heroes have brought this issue to the notice of the governments of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and their respective law enforcement bodies.

The first actor to raise this issue publicly was Supreme Star Sai Dharam Tej. This alerted the government’s social media handles to put their responses first. Manchu Manoj followed Sai Dharam Tej’s cue. After commenting on how the YouTuber ignored Manoj’s requests to use his channel to raise activism on women and child empowerment issues a year ago, Manoj went on to condemn Praneeth severely for taking the path of indecency and inappropriate behaviour to get laughs.

After Adivi Sesh and Vishwak Sen had also condemned the YouTuber for his shameful actions, Sudheer Babu and Kartikeya Gummakonda later went on to apologize for working with Praneeth in Harom Hara and the promotions of Bhaje Vaayu Vegam.

Manchu Vishnu seemed to take a step further, demanding all Telugu YouTubers to voluntarily delete any objectionable content on their platforms in the next 48 hours. The MAA President threatened legal action otherwise.

One must laud our heroes for taking such a proactive call to action, without which this issue would not have been taken up by the authorities. These young heroes of TFI are also showing the right path to the youth by raising their voice collectively against a serious issue. While it is important to bring perpetrators to justice at the moment, it is also equally important to ensure nefarious acts of this nature do not happen again. And that is also what Tollywood heroes are ensuring today, by speaking out.