Man held for posting edited rally footage on youtube

A man, working with a Mumbai-based motor-sport firm, was arrested on Saturday for allegedly editing footage of a rally navigator during a championship event in a video sharing website, which reportedly jeopardised the profession and reputation of a city-based co-driver.

Based on a complaint from rally car navigator/co-driver Vivek Ponnusamy, Yohan Chetna was arrested from a hotel in Chennai and remanded in judicial custody, police said. Ponnusamy in his complaint said he was a leading rally car navigator/co-driver with over 22 years of experience and has participated in Indian as well as international car rallies. He had participated in the recent National Rally Championship at Coimbatore between July 19 and 21 as a co-driver assistant for one Samir Thapar.

An in-car video camera was installed inside the car to record the entire race by the team, comprising Samir Thapar and Ponnusamy. After the event, Thapar had posted the 40 minute video on youtube with the caption 'The lighter side of rallying'. However, Chetna, who viewed this video downloaded it and digitally altered the video into 3.5 minutes with "malicious intent" and then posted it in youtube, the complaint said.

Ponnusamy alleged that his reputation had been irreversibly damaged by the digitally edited video posted, which led to nasty comments by those who viewed the video. Besides, it deteriorated his reputation and calibre as a navigator and caused great financial loss to him as he lost a prestigious international rally contract in Australia.

Based on his complaint, a case was registered under various IPC sections r/w 66 (A) of Information Technology Amendment Act,2008. A special team arrested Chetna at a hotel in Chennai, where he had checked-in as the event manager for Chennai Circuit Rally at Irunkagattukottai. During interrogation, Chetna stated he was working as a sporting manager in J A motor sport in Mumbai and in the non technical part of the championship.

He confessed to having edited the footage and uploading the edited video of the championship in youtube through his account named yohanchetna on August 8, police said.