After months of legal tangles tied to India’s Got Latent controversy, YouTuber Ranveer Allahbadia has finally been cleared to travel abroad. With his passport returned by the police, Ranveer has now flown out of India, making his first international trip since the row erupted. Also read: Ranveer Allahbadia was told to take a break after India’s Got Latent row: ‘Took a toll on my mental health’
Ranveer Allahbadia flies out of India
In a huge relief to Ranveer, the Supreme Court on Monday directed the police to return his passport to enable him to travel for work after the Assam and Maharashtra governments told the court that their investigation against him into the obscene remarks on comedian Samay Raina’s show India’s Got Latent has concluded.
After getting his passport back, Ranveer, aka BeerBiceps, took a flight out of India. He marked the moment with a cheerful Instagram post, sharing a photo of himself posing with a suitcase at the airport.
He captioned it, “Passport mil gaya guys (have got my passport back guys)”. Ranveer also shared a screenshot of the story of the Supreme Court directing the return of his passport. Ranveer also shared a photo in which he is lounging comfortably in business class, seemingly enjoying his journey after finally being able to fly out of India.
Ranveer asks for his passport
Ranveer, who has 10.4 million subscribers on YouTube, first sought the return of his passport in March this year, pointing out that he was required to extensively travel and interview persons for the podcast, “his only source of livelihood”. He had surrendered the passport to the police on the Supreme Court’s February 18 order that protected him from arrest in multiple FIRs filed over his comments during a show. The episode of India’s Got Latent was published on YouTube on February 9 and taken down two days later following a complaint by the union government.
On Monday, the solicitor general informed the court that the investigation against Ranveer was complete and asked that Ranveer continue to cooperate with the probe till the filing of the charge sheet. Maharashtra and Assam have accused Ranveer and several others of outraging the modesty of women (section 79), promoting hatred (section 196), insulting religious beliefs (section 299), acts against public decency (section 299), among other provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
About India’s Got Latent stir
In February, Ranveer Allahbadia found himself in the middle of a controversy after appearing in an episode of India’s Got Latent, which also featured Apoorva Mukhija and Ashish Chanchlani. On the show, Ranveer asked a contestant, “Would you rather watch your parents have sex every day for the rest of your life or join in once to make it stop forever?”
At that moment, everyone present on the show laughed it off, but the remark did not sit well with some politicians and social media users. It received intense backlash, followed by multiple FIRs against the makers and those present on the show. In an apology video on X, Ranveer admitted that his comment was not only inappropriate but also not funny. He also submitted a written apology to the NCW over his offensive remarks made on the show.
