New Delhi:
Days after a video of him beating a YouTuber – Sagar Thakur, a.k.a. Maxtern – went viral on social media, Elvish Yadav, the winner of Bigg Boss OTT 2 and also a YouTuber, justified his actions in an Instagram video and said he was set up.
In a bizarre clarification video captioned “First plan and play victim”, Mr Yadav admits to beating up his fellow YouTuber for allegedly threatening to “burn” Elvish Yadav and his parents alive at home.
In the video, Mr Yadav claims Maxtern had been “poking” him on social media since he walked out of the Bigg Boss OTT house in August last year. During this time, the two even shot together, he said.
However, after eight months of being “poked” on Twitter and other platforms, Mr Yadav said he decided to meet and talk to Maxtern.
On the day of the incident, Elvish Yadav called Maxtern home for a meeting. “I told him to meet me around midnight once I landed in Delhi,” Mr Yadav said in the video.
However, Maxtern shared the screenshot of their chats on social media, further provoking him, Mr Yadav said. “I had sent him the location of my home on WhatsApp… I told him guests are treated like Gods at our home and I would never beat him in my home. I told him not to be scared…,” he said.
“But Maxtern made some statements about my family and threatened to burn me and my family alive. I abused him over this and told him I would come and meet him wherever he was,” he said.
Finally, they met at a garments shop owned by Maxtern’s friend, Mr Yadav said, adding that he was set up.
There were cameras hidden at various angles with microphones to capture the attack, Mr Yadav said. Even Maxtern was wearing a microphone, he said, alleging that the YouTuber knew what would unfold and how he would use it on social media.
Elvish Yadav also admitted that he threatened to kill Maxtern, but maintained it was said in the “heat of the moment”.
The comments against his family enraged him, Mr Yadav said, as he asked his followers to comment under the video how they would have reacted to such threats.
“Should I have given him a matchstick and told him to burn me and my family?” he said.
The YouTuber also said he went to meet Maxtern with nine people but added that Maxtern was not alone either. There were four people with Maxtern but none came to his rescue, Mr Yadav said, adding that his aides tried to break up the fight.
The OTT star also blamed the “Left” and the “anti-Hindu” lobby for scheming against him because he speaks for the Hindus.
On Thursday, a social media clash between two YouTubers – Elvish Yadav and Maxtern – transcended into reality, seriously injuring one and landing the other in a police case.
The entire incident was chronicled on Maxtern and Mr Yadav’s social media pages, and also in a video, where Mr Yadav, along with his aides, was seen approaching Maxtern before relentlessly beating him at a garments shop. Some were seen trying to break up the fight.
“Elvish Yadav tried to break my spine so I become physically disabled,” Mr Thakur claimed in his FIR.