HC closes plea seeking YouTuber's custody

The Madras High Court on Monday closed as infructuous a plea from the Avadi Police Commissionerate to grant custody of YouTuber S Karthik Gopinath for further interrogation, since a lower court had already given him bail.

As the court in Poonamallee had granted bail to Gopinath last week, the matter has become infructuous and there survives nothing for his police custody, Justice N Satish Kumar said and closed the police application. As regards the criminal original petition from Gopinath, seeking to quash the FIR registered against him, the judge directed the prosecution to file a status report and adjourned the matter till June 24.

The pro- right wing YouTuber was earlier arrested for allegedly cheating people by collecting money using an online crowdfunding platform for renovating a state-administered temple.

When the matter came up today, the government advocate told the judge that Gopinath had collected more than Rs 3 lakh in his personal account apart from over Rs 30 lakh through a crowd funding platform.