NEW DELHI: Amidst an outrage over New Year Eve mass molestation in Bengaluru and similar incidents in the national capital, a "prank" video posted on Youtube in which a man tries to kiss girls randomly has invited criticism and prompted Delhi police to start an investigation into the matter.
The video was apparently shot in the popular Connaught Place area and were uploaded on the video-sharing website by the young man via his Youtube channel "The Crazy Sumit". In the video, the boy could be seen kissing girls randomly on the street and running away.
"The video has come to Delhi Police's notice through media. We have started the initial technical inquiry. This obscene video is available on Facebook and Youtube links and we are probing this," said Dependra Pathak, Delhi police spokesperson and joint commissioner of police (Southwest).
A few days ago, Sumit, who runs a YouTube channel called 'The Crazy Sumit' posted a video titled 'The funniest prank of 2017', where he went around randomly kissing unsuspecting women and then running away.
In the video, on one particular instance, he walked up to a girl, and as she stopped, he kissed her and then made a run for it. The young woman was left stumped and covered her face, as passersby stared at her.
But Sumit has now issued a video apology after being at the receiving end of scathing criticism for his prank, with many saying it amounts to sexual harassment that cannot be passed off as humour.
"I never knew the kissing and running a prank will go so viral and have such a bad impact. I really apologize, never wanted to hurt anyone. It was just shot for entertainment purposes. I respect women and I would never do anything like that again," Sumit says in the video message. He also claims he has deleted the original video of the 'prank'.
The Crazy Sumit has more than 1.5 lakh subscribers and there were thousands who 'liked' the so-called prank.
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