Man who tried to extort 1cr from YouTuber held in Guj

Gurgaon: A 25-year-old man has been arrested from Vadnagar in Gujarat on Thursday for allegedly threatening and trying to extort Rs 1 crore from YouTuber and reality show Bigg Boss OTT winner Elvish Yadav and his manager.
The accused has been identified as Shakir Makrani, an agent with a transport company in Vadnagar.
According to the police complaint filed by Yadav, he was on a trip abroad with his manager and returned to India on October 17.
“When he checked his phone, he found several WhatsApp messages. The sender demanded money and threatened to murder Yadav and his manager in Surat if not paid. His manager also received similar texts. After ignoring the messages for some time, Yadav later decided to file a complaint,” ACP (crime) Varun Dahiya said.
The ACP further said Makrani initially demanded Rs 40 lakh as “protection money”, but later bombarded Yadav and his manager with more messages seeking Rs 1 crore.
Based on Yadav’s complaint, an FIR was filed under sections 384 (extortion) and 387 (putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt to commit extortion) of the Indian Penal Code at Sector 53 police station on Wednesday.
“As soon as we received the complaint, a crime branch team was sent to Gujarat. We were able to trace the accused’s whereabouts in collaboration with local police and arrested him on Thursday morning,” Dahiya added.
Police have also seized the SIM card allegedly used to send the messages. The smartphones in which it was used are yet to be recovered.
During interrogation, Makrant revealed that he tried to extort money from Yadav as he wanted to make some quick money.
“He was highly influenced by Yadav’s lifestyle and presence on social media. We are investigating how he managed to obtain the YouTuber’s phone number,” the ACP said.
Makrant is being brought to Gurgaon for trial, cops said. “The team which went to Vadnagar to arrest him on Wednesday night is bringing him here. We will interrogate him and further investigate the case to find out if he had any associates. More details will emerge as the probe progresses,” Dahiya said.
Gurgaon-based Elvish Yadav is widely popular across various social media platforms. He runs two YouTube channels which altogether have over 19 million subscribers, making headlines every so often.
The YouTuber’s name to fame was by emerging as the first wild card contestant to clinch the Bigg Boss OTT 2 trophy last month.