The Mumbai police have booked an unidentified person associated with a YouTube channel for allegedly creating and circulating a defamatory video falsely portraying a photographer as the husband of Mayor Ritu Tawde.

Rajesh Vasudev Tawde, 55, a resident of Lalbaug, told the Kalachowki police in his complaint that he runs photography classes and a studio in Kankavli. He has a YouTube channel and a Facebook account where he posts photographs and advertisements for his photography classes.

According to his statement, on August 26 at around 10.30 pm, a woman residing in his building sent him a YouTube Shorts link on WhatsApp. When he opened the link, he found a short video on the channel ‘gk-shorts-videos’ titled ‘Rajesh Tawde ke pati Ritu Tawde ka jeevan parichay’.

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The video posted on August 23 allegedly included the complainant’s photograph next to a picture of Tawde, referring to him as her husband. The complainant suspects that his photograph might have been taken from his Facebook account, while the mayor’s photograph appeared to have been sourced from social media.

The FIR states that the complainant subsequently checked the YouTube channel and found it was created on April 15, with around 1,530 subscribers and 243 videos featuring introductions to political leaders and film personalities.

“He further stated that the creator makes videos in which he gives information about the lives of political leaders,” the police stated.

The complainant alleged that the video was made and circulated with the intention of defaming him and the mayor without conducting any verification.

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“We have registered an FIR and are investigating the matter,” the police said.