A couple of minutes on a livestream is all it took to turn his life upside down. In a now viral video, YouTuber-vlogger Vitaly lured US-based entrepreneur Akash Singhania into a sting operation. He was declared a ‘pedophile’ even before he could process what was happening. Vitaly had to apologise later when proved wrong…
But it was too little too late. In a video chat with HT City from US, Akash tells his side of the story:
Akash, how did the entire incident go down?
As millions of people do every single day, I was talking to someone on a dating app. We agreed to meet consensually, and I had no reason to assume anything was out of the ordinary. You need to verify your age on these apps. Her job was to lure people into Snapchat, tell them her fake age (as a minor), and then meet up. That never happened between us. She was texting so many guys at the same time, incentivised to get someone as fast as possible for the show. It was a complete mistake on Vitaly’s side. This girl and I were texting the entire time on the dating app and made plans to meet, 20 seconds after I met her, immediately four-five cameras were in my face. People around me were saying the most vile, crazy, racist things. In my head I was beginning to think ‘is this a prank?’ because I knew I did nothing wrong. I said I am not going to pander to this nonsense. Then she said there was a second Snapchat texting her, it was not me. She hid her phone and would not show me anything. I decided to call the cops. You have the right to remain silent and anything you say to cops can and will be used against you. You should also not say anything until you have a counsel… but I waived off all my rights in that moment. I had nothing to hide, and the police checked everything. I was innocent.