Bengaluru: A foreign YouTuber hogged the limelight for the wrong reasons for travelling on the Bengaluru metro without buying a ticket. Reacting to the incident, Managing Director of Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) Anjum Parvez said, "A video of foreign YouTuber Phidias Panayiotou travelling on Namma Metro without buying a ticket has gone viral on social media."
"The authorities concerned will investigate the matter and will take appropriate action," Parvez said. "He made a video showing how to travel for free and posted it on social media. We have noticed that the video has gone viral. Such behaviour is unacceptable. Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation will file a criminal case against Phidias Panayiotou" he said.
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In the video, Fidias was seen wearing a white T-shirt and blue shorts, walking into the Metro saying, "I will teach you how to get the metro in India for free." The video shows that the YouTuber went to the platform and boarded the metro without buying a ticket. Later, he came out of the metro station giving an explanation and jumped over the closed turnstile without putting in a coupon."
Sharing the video on his Instagram handle, the Youtuber captioned, "How to sneak into the Indian Metro." In Bengaluru, the metro was launched in 2011 and so far there have been no such cases. This is the first case of jumping and travelling without a ticket, Pervez said.
Reacting to the video, a social media user wrote, "Nothing spectacular, I just came back from Europe, and if I wanted I could have done this all over Europe. If the Govt. trusts you to be honest and you don't what can be done? The cost of employing some1 to scrutinize this will be far more than what the Govt. will lose if people try and do what you just did." Another user wrote, "We pay taxes and also buy tickets to maintain the flow. Respect the local law." (sic)
