Bhubaneswar: A police team from Odisha on Wednesday arrested Kolkata-based YouTuber Animesh Chakraborty for flying a drone equipped with a high-definition camera over Jagannath temple in Puri without permission.
Puri Police in its Twitter handle said Animesh was arrested from Barrackpore in Kolkata. The team from Puri Police led by City DSP KK Hariprasad had been tracking his movements for five days before arresting him.
The illegal action of Animesh came to light after the nearly six-minute video covering aerial views from ‘Nilachakra’ to Singhadwara (Lion’s Gate) of the temple went viral in social media. The YouTuber, who had downloaded the video in his Facebook account, also thanked Odisha Police in the message.
Following a hue and cry over the video, Animesh apologised for his action. Stating that it was ‘unintentional’, he said he had a registered drone and it did not notify me that the Jagannath Temple is ‘no-fly’ zone. “I did not receive any notification on my drone when I shot the video of Puri Srimandir,” he said in the YouTube post.
He further said he had visited Puri 2-3 months back for taking aerial images of the temple with permission from the Puri police. “Everything happened hurriedly and I failed to ask the police for the shooting due to a shortage of time and incessant rain,” he said.
After the matter came to the fore, Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) had initiated a probe into the incident and lodged a complaint with Singhadwar Police.
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