Maharashtra Cyber Cell has refused the plea of YouTuber Samay Raina to allow him to record his statement in the ‘India’s Got Latent’ controversy via video-conferencing.

Raina in his plea said that he is currently in the US and won’t be able to return to India before March 17 due to prior commitments.

Maharashtra Cyber Cell said that Raina has been asked to record his statement in person on February 18.

Raina hosted show ‘India’s Got Latent’ got embroiled in controversy over comments made by podcaster Ranveer Allahbadia.

During the show, he asked a contestant, “Would you rather watch your parents… or join in once and stop it forever?”
Following a massive backlash, a formal complaint was filed against Ranveer Allahbadia, social media influencer Apoorva Makhija, comedian Samay Raina, and the organizers of ‘India’s Got Latent.’

Samay later took to his Instagram Stories to share a statement, stating that he had removed all videos of the show from his channel and was “fully cooperating” with the authorities. He also added that his only intention was to entertain people.

“Everything that has been happening has been too much for me to handle. I have removed all India’s Got Latent videos from my channel. My only objective was to make people laugh and have a good time. I will fully cooperate with all agencies to ensure their inquiries are concluded fairly. Thank you,” Samay wrote on his Instagram Story.

On Friday, the Youtuber and Podcaster approached the Supreme Court seeking to club multiple FIRs lodged against him across India over his recent inappropriate comments during his guest appearance on a show ‘India’s Got Latent’.

Senior advocate Abhinav Chandrachud, appearing for Allahbadia, mentioned the matter before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna requesting an urgent hearing in the case.

Advocate Chandrachud told the bench that multiple FIRs were registered against him, and Assam Police summoned him on Friday. CJI Khanna said he does not allow oral mentionings and clarified that a listing of the case date has been assigned.

On February 11, the Chief Minister of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma, said the Guwahati Police had registered an FIR against YouTubers and social influencers Allahbadia, Samay Raina, Ashish Chanchlani, Jaspreet Singh, Apoorva Makhija, and others for promoting obscenity and engaging in sexually explicit and vulgar discussions on India’s Got Latent.

FIRs have been registered against them in Maharashtra and Assam.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)