‘Gangsters’ on Instagram reels now prisoners in Chennai jail

CHENNAI: A bit of overzealousness in enacting reels for Instagram has landed two youths behind bars as they used a police van parked at a ground as a prop for their act. The next sequence of reels didn’t help their cause either as they were seen holding weapons in a bid to display machismo to a trending reel from the recent movie Vikram.

In the 37-second professionally done reels (short video), one of the arrested youths reprises the role of a local drug smuggler, played by actor Vijay Sethupathi in the movie Vikram and is seen brandishing knives and other weapons.

The arrested youths were identified as M Sanjay (22) of Manali Pudhunagar and G Vignesh (22) of New Washermanpet, a law student.

They were arrested based on a complaint by S Naveen Kumar, an armed reserve constable. Police said that Naveen Kumar is the driver of the police van, which is used to transport CISF (central industrial security force) constables on security detail at Madras High Court from their residential quarters.

On Thursday, Naveen had parked the van at MPT ground in New washermanpet and was resting nearby. He was informed by public that some youngsters were seen entering the police van and jumping out of it.

Naveen managed to catch hold of two of them, who told the constable that they were shot videos in the police vehicle.

Based on the constable’s complaint, New washermanpet police booked them under Sections of the IPC, including 454 (trespass or break-in), 504 (intentional insult to provoke breach of peace) among others.

The two youths were produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody.