From Bobby Kataria’s smoking in-flight to Gaurav Taneja’s Metro Birthday Bash, times when influencers’ publicity stunt went wrong

The Delhi police on Tuesday lodged an FIR against Bobby Kataria, three days after the bodybuilder and Instagram influencer uploaded a video on his social media accountof him smoking a cigarette on-board a Spicejet flight, for violating safety and security measures inside an aircraft.

on August 13, Jasbir Singh, Manager Legal and Company Affairs of SpiceJet, filed a complaint with the IGI Airport Police Station and requested action against Balwant Kataria alias Boby Kataria for violation of security and safety measures on-board the Dubai-Delhi flight SG-706 on January 21.

In the visuals, Kataria was seen with a lighter and smoking a cigarette on-board a SpiceJet flight.

“KatariaAhad uploaded pictures and videos from his social media accounts wherein he was seen with a lighter and smoking a cigarette on-board SpiceJet flight. The video was shot at SG-706, on January 21. Hence action should be taken against them,” read the complaint.

What is the case on Bobby Kataria

The police said that on the basis of complaint a case was filed on August 15 under section 3(1)(C ) of “The Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against Safety of Civil Aviation Act 1982” at PS IGI Airport.

Last week, Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia had directed the concerned authorities to probe the incident. Responding to a video on Twitter, Scindia said: “Investigating it. There will be no tolerance towards such hazardous behaviour.”

Now, a case has been registered against Kataria after a video showed him sitting on a chair in the middle of the Dehradun-Mussoorie road and consuming liquor with a song playing in the background that said “Roads Apne baap ki”.

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, police said.

“Uttarakhand Police has long been taking stern action against people drinking in public places and creating nuisance. A case has been registered against Kataria under relevant sections of the IPC. Necessary action will be taken,” Uttarakhand DGP Ashok Kumar said in a tweet on Friday.

Kataria has 6.3 lakh followers on Instagram. Passengers are not allowed to take lighter in the plane. Passengers are also not allowed to smoke in the plane.

SpiceJet said the smoking incident had taken place in its Dubai-Delhi flight on January 20 when passengers were boarding the plane and the cabin crew members were busy with completing the on-boarding procedure. After investigation, the airline had put the passenger on “no flying list” for 15 days in February, it mentioned.

As per the regulations of aviation regulator DGCA, an airline has the power to ban an “unruly” passenger for a certain period of time if he or she violates any rules.

In a statement, SpiceJet said: “This is with reference to a video on social media of a passenger smoking onboard a SpiceJet aircraft. 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 video, the investigation had revealed, was shot on January 20, 2022 while passengers were boarding flight SG 706 scheduled to fly from Dubai to Delhi, it said.

“The said passenger and his co-passengers shot the video on the 21st row when the cabin crew were occupied with completing the on-boarding procedure. None of the passengers or crew was aware of the act. The matter came to the airline’s notice on January 24, 2022 through social media posts,” it said.

Other influencers who landed in similar controversies

GAURAV TANEJA

Last month, popular YouTuber Gaurav Taneja was arrested in Noida for his 36th birthday bash that allegedly violated Section 144 of the CrPc as thousands of his fans thronged a metro station to celebrate the day.

The event was planned by Taneja’s wife Ritu Rathee. However, after he was released on bail,Taneja had revealed that he had the permit to Noida Metro Rail Corporation to celebrate his birthday inside a metro for which he had paid Rs 38,000 to avail the facility between 2pm and 3pm.

Taneja is popular on YouTube and his channel, ‘Flying Beast’, has lakhs of subscribers. Thousands of his fans showed up at the Noida sector 51 metro station to celebrate his birthday that also led to a stampede-like situation.

TTF VASAN

Twenty-year-old Youtube star, TTF Vasan, landed up in trouble when he organised a meetup at Coimbatore’s TN 43 Hotel on his birthday and over 3,000 young fans arrived. Thhis led to traffic congestion and the Tamil Nadu police warned him against repeating similar publicity stunts.

Vasan, who has millions of followers, also received flak for his viral video of him riding his highCC Bike at 247Kmph went viral with complaints and requests to arrest him.

RANVEER ALLAHBADIA

YouTuber and internet personality Ranveer Allahbadia, popularly known as ‘Beer Biceps’, sparked a controversy after he suggested that women should dress up a certain way if they wanted to become “100x more attractive”.

In a tweet, Allahabadia reckoned that any woman who wears a long Kurti paired with big earrings draws more male attention by a 100 times and also shared an image of such a depiction.

“Any girl becomes a 100x more attractive in a long kurti paired with those big earrings. Life hack that brings all guys to their knees,” he had written.