Influencer Amir Shokeen Arrested Over Racial Harassment of Student

Delhi Police arrested influencer Amir Shokeen for the alleged racial harassment and public humiliation of a student from Tripura. Tripura Police have also registered an FIR and are actively coordinating with Delhi authorities on the case.

Influencer Arrested in Delhi Over Racial Harassment

New Delhi [India], October 22 (ANI): Social media influencer Amir Shokeen has been arrested in connection with the alleged racial harassment and public humiliation of a student from Tripura, Delhi Police said on Thursday. According to Delhi Police, a case was registered against Shokeen under Sections 192, 196, 352 and 353 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). The sections relate to provocation with intent to cause a riot, promoting enmity between groups, intentional insult with intent to provoke a breach of peace, and statements conducing to public mischief, respectively.

Police said Shokeen was arrested from Karol Bagh, where he was allegedly hiding at a relative's house. His location was traced to Shahdara earlier in the morning, but he kept changing locations. Sadar Bazar Police eventually arrested him in the evening with the help of technical surveillance. Police also said that previous cases had been registered against Shokeen under Sections 323, 324, 504 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). These sections relate to voluntarily causing hurt, voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons, intentional insult with intent to provoke a breach of peace, and criminal intimidation, respectively.

Investigation and Political Response

Tripura Police Involvement

Meanwhile, Tripura Police registered an FIR and sent a special team to Delhi to coordinate with the Delhi Police in the investigation. Speaking to ANI, Tripura Director General of Police (DGP) GS Rao said, "This video came to our notice yesterday evening. Taking cognisance of it, a complaint was received, and an FIR has been registered. A team from Tripura Police is leaving for Delhi." Rao also said that he had personally coordinated with senior Delhi Police officials to expedite the investigation.

Statements from Political Leaders

Congress leader Ripun Bora criticised the government over the alleged incident, alleging that students from the Northeast had repeatedly faced racial discrimination in Delhi and other parts of the country. "This is not a new issue. It is a very old problem. On several occasions, our students studying in Delhi and other parts of the country have been targeted for racial discrimination. This is very unfortunate in a democratic country. This issue has been discussed several times in Parliament, but the BJP government has totally failed to address it. The government has been taking these matters too casually. These recent incidents should not have happened, as the government has been cautioned about such cases repeatedly. This is a failure of the government," Bora said.

According to the complaint, a video circulating on Instagram allegedly shows a person from Tripura being subjected to sexual assault, harassment and degrading treatment by a social media content creator. A Tripura student body identified the Instagram account as @amirshokeen and said it was purportedly associated with Shokeen. (ANI)

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Asianetnews Editorial staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)