Minal Ruhela

A man in Pune built a following by filming potholes. He drove around the city with a camera, showing broken roads, damaged footpaths, and cars with illegal number plates. People watched because they recognised their own streets. On 3rd September, at about 1 in the morning, the police came to his house and arrested him. His name is Santosh Pandit. He lives in Kothrud in Pune. He is a social media creator and civic activist. His videos question the quality of municipal work in the city and ask why it has not been fixed. He is now in Yerawada Central Jail. On 8th September a court remanded him to judicial custody until 21st September. Here is exactly what he is accused of, because this matters. He was not arrested over the potholes. The first complaint was filed on 31st August by a corporator. A second was filed at Kothrud police station by a 36 year old sanitation worker employed by the Pune Municipal Corporation. The complaints allege that in some of his videos he used obscene, sexually coloured, abusive and defamatory language while attacking a state cabinet minister, a woman corporator and the Chief Minister. He has been booked under several sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and under Section 67 of the Information Technology Act. Those are allegations. No court has decided them. He has not been convicted of anything. Now the part that has caused the argument. The second complaint was filed, and he was arrested at around 1 am the same night. Police then told the court he had 4 cases registered against him across different police stations, described him as a frequent offender, and said that if released he might upload similar content again and disturb public peace. The Wire has reported a comparison that is hard to ignore. In the same state, 13 of the 39 ministers in the government face serious criminal charges. One minister alone has 38 first information reports registered against him. None of them were collected from their homes at 1 in the morning. That is the whole issue, and it is worth separating carefully. Whether Santosh Pandit crossed a line is a question for a court. If a man used sexually coloured language about a woman corporator, a complaint is legitimate and the law should take its course. The separate question is about speed. An ordinary citizen's complaint about a minister can sit for years. A minister's associate files a complaint about a citizen and the arrest happens within hours, at night. The same police, the same state, the same law. He will be in Yerawada until at least the 21st.