Mumbai: The Pune Police arrested activist and YouTuber Santosh Pandit in the early hours of Thursday, September 3. Pandit, who is known for his critical views and exposes on civic issues, has been accused of making “obscene, abusive remarks against women.”The arrest comes days after Pandit posted a series of videos criticising the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, including Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, for shoddy developmental work and alleged corruption in civic infrastructure projects. Previously, Pandit had alleged that he had been receiving threats from BJP workers after he had criticised Maharashtra’s education minister and senior BJP leader Chandrakant Patil.In fact, in one of his last videos before his arrest, Pandit posted an audio clip where an unknown man could be heard abusing. According to Pandit, the man was a BJP worker.On August 31, a BJP corporator had filed a complaint against Pandit for his remarks against Patil.Pandit enjoys considerable clout on the internet for his activism. He has over 1.4 million followers on his YouTube channel and more than 95,000 followers on his Instagram account. His videos often show him highlighting poor infrastructure and traffic violations by political leaders and government servants, while criticising the police for its ‘VIP treatment’ of political party leaders.Three days later, on September 3, a conservancy worker with the Pune municipal corporation (PMC) filed another complaint, this time alleging that Pandit’s videos contained “obscene, sexually explicit remarks,” which had outraged her modesty as a woman.The Wire has reviewed a copy of Kamble’s FIR, which charges Pandit under Sections 75 (1) (iv), 75 (3), 356 (2), 352 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023, and Section 67 of the Information Technology Act (ITA), alleging sexual harassment, defamation and publishing obscene material online.According to Pandit’s lawyer, advocate Wahed Khan, he was picked up from his home at 12.30 am. The FIR, a copy of which was obtained by The Wire, was registered at 1.18 am at the Kothrud Police Station.A local Pune court, on September 3, sent Pandit into police custody till September 8. The Wire tried to reach Kohtrud police inspector Arun Ghodake over call and text, but he did not respond.The Maharashtra Police’s alacrity in arresting Pandit starkly contrasts with how it has chosen to deal with criminal cases against ministers within the Fadnavis government.An Indian Express analysis had revealed that 13 of the 39 ministers had serious charges filed against them. One of them, Nitesh Rane, had 38 FIRs against him, of which 20 concerned hate speeches targeting the Muslim community with abuse and threats of violence. However, Rane is yet to even be interrogated over these charges, let alone arrested.Meanwhile, opposition parties have criticised Pandit’s arrest.“Executing a midnight raid on a citizen for criticising the government without serving a mandatory notice under Sec 35 BNSS, Arnesh Kumar guidelines & Maharashtra DGP’s own 2021 Standing Order is pure lawlessness,” said Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) spokesperson Anish Gawande said, “Pune police must act professionally, not under political pressure.”Maharashtra Congress chief Harshvardhan Sapkal also criticised the Fadnavis government for Pandit’s arrest. “Is it the democracy of the Modi-Fadnavis government to intimidate those who ask questions with police force and to suppress the voice of those who criticize those in power?,” he wrote on X.On Friday, September 4, citizens gathered in Pune’s Shivaji Nagar to protest Pandit’s arrest as well as the assault on another activist Vidyananad Bapat, who has been campaigning for a ban on DJs during festival celebrations.Potholes, convoys And theatricsPandit started his YouTube channel in June 2022, and posted his first video on June 22, speaking about his disillusionment with “the politics of the day.” The video came a day after Eknath Shinde rebelled and split the Shiv Sena, walking away with 22 MLAs.“What is happening in this country? You don’t have any vision. You start with one party, then jump to another. You just care about power, isn’t it? What about the common man who votes for you?,” he said in the video, without referring to any party or political leaders.In a podcast last year, on ‘Podkatta’ YouTube channel, Pandit hinted at a difficult early life, before becoming a YouTuber, starting with the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.“I had a travel business which was thriving. But immediately after the terror attack, when tourists fled, my business hit rock bottom, I couldn’t pay back the loans and I lost my house, my business, everything,” he said in the podcast, “I was looking for a chance to fight the government.”In that moment of anger, he turned to the BJP and even campaigned for Narendra Modi in 2014. But soon after, he regretted the decision. “Whatever major decisions he took and the steps that followed, they were all laughable. Did you get the 15 lakh he promised? Does he even mention the Swiss bank now?,” he said.Pandit, disillusioned and angry, started channeling his rage against poor quality infrastructure and instances of what he saw as misuse of power and preferential treatment.He often marks potholes and bad stretches of roads with colours, drawing rangolis around them. In many of his videos, Pandit is seen standing at traffic junctions and walking up to private vehicles that seem to flout traffic norms.In one of his most popular videos, he spots a black SUV plying on the streets with a six-digit number, instead of the legally-required 10-digit number plate and starts following it. Pandit, his camera rolling, calls traffic constables, confronts the driver and demands action against the owner. The next day, Pandit is seen standing outside the police station with a police official and the owner of the car, who apologises and removes the number plate, promising to never repeat it.The video garnered over 12 million views, more than 317,000 likes and 5,300-odd comments. “You are such a daring man, sir” read one comment under the video that had 6,000 likes.Courting troubleIt is one such video that could have precipitated his arrest. On August 31, he uploaded a video where he encountered a similar, illegal number plate. Riding a motorbike, a pillion-riding accomplice holding a phone camera, Pandit drives up to the front of the vehicle and realises that the man in the car with the illegal number plate is BJP MLC and close Fadnavis aide Gopichand Padalkar.“Sir, you don’t have a high security registration plate. You are a legislator,” he told Padalkar.Padalkar, inaudible, told him to stop recording, however Pandit refused. Padalkar then rolls up his window and stops responding.“Padalkar isn’t wearing a seatbelt, nor is his driver. He doesn’t even have a HSRP numberplate,” he says in the video. “When will you follow the rules?,” he asks. The video garnered over 6.8 million views, but it also got him multiple threats.The same day, he posted a video alleging that he was getting threats from one of Padalkar’s aides.In August this year, Pandit started posting about an open-to-air gymnasium in Pune that had been built using minister Patil’s funds. Pandit challenged the costs of the equipment in a series of videos, demanding an explanation from Patil.According to the FIR filed against Pandit, in challenging Patil, Pandit used “sexually-suggestive language” against Patil and the local BJP corporator Mitali Salvekar.“After seeing the statement, I too felt ashamed and embarrassed. As a result, Mitali Salvekar and I have suffered humiliation and loss of dignity,” the FIR stated.Pandit’s lawyer Khan dismissed these allegations. “Pandit did not mean anything in a sexually-suggestive manner, the way the FIR alleges. He used words that are used in everyday parlance,” he said.According to Khan, Pune Police violated Section 35 (3) of the BNSS Act, 2023, which mandates that the police issue a notice before making such arrests if the offence has less than seven years of imprisonment.“In fact, they issued a notice after he was picked up. We co-operated with the police, despite the fact that they came to his doorstep at midnight wearing plain-clothes. Yet, they violated these procedures and hence, the arrest is illegal,” said Khan.He added that they were going to apply for bail on Monday, September 7.“We are going to tell the court that Maharashtra’s politicians are getting away spouting indecent, obscene and hateful speeches, but there is no action against them. Yet, Pandit gets arrested in no time” he said.Kunal Purohit is an independent journalist.