Kamal Ghorui
“My world was turned upside down this weekend.” That is how Akash Singhania began his statement after being wrongly accused of predatory behaviour in a viral sting video by Russian YouTuber Vitaly Zdorovetskiy.The incident took place in California, where Vitaly and his team confronted Singhania in a neighbourhood, claiming that he had invited a 16-year-old girl on a date. The accusation was based on supposed Snapchat messages shown during the sting.In his statement, Singhania said, “As some of you may have seen, I was featured on a recent episode of Vitaly Zdorovetskiy’s live series, where I was wrongfully portrayed as someone attempting to engage in an inappropriate conduct. This accusation is completely false.”Videos from the scene show Singhania repeatedly denying the claims and asking the group to check his messages. “I am not trying to fight this, I am not a violent person,” he said, while attempting to explain that the person he believed he was meeting was 18.Despite this, the YouTuber and his team continued accusing him. During the exchange, Vitaly said, “You are one of those tech Indians, smart ones huh,” and said Singhania may have been using multiple Snapchat accounts. Vitaly was also seen making racist comments in the video.The situation escalated until Singhania called the police. According to his statement, officers from the Santa Ana Police Department arrived and assessed the situation. He said they “confirmed that I am innocent of any wrongdoing.”“I am sincerely grateful to Officers Renald Galstian, Lorenzo Sanchez, and Joanna Hatziefstratiou for their professionalism and for taking the time to carefully evaluate the situation and establish the truth,” he added.Following the incident, Vitaly issued a public apology on social media, admitting fault. “We wrongly identified and accused Akash Singhania. We were completely wrong and made a terrible mistake,” he said. He also urged people to delete the videos, adding, “Our team and I messed up and we are deeply sorry to Akash. Whoever has those videos, delete it. The Snapchat messages got messed up, it was the wrong time, wrong place.”Singhania said the fallout of the false accusations has been severe. “While I appreciate that the mistake has been acknowledged, the impact of the false accusation has been significant. I have experienced harassment, judgment, and damage to my personal and professional relationships based on something that has now been proven false.”He added: “At the same time, this experience has shown me how important due process and verification are because mistakes, when made publicly, can have serious consequences on innocent lives.”The incident led many on social media to encourage Akash to file a lawsuit, saying he should be compensated for defamation.Video of the incident:
