Prank gone wrong!
As the coronavirus outbreak sparks concerns globally, a prankster has come under fire for imitating the symptoms of the virus as a joke while travelling on a metro and causing a public panic.
According to media reports, the social media influencer named Karomatullo Dzhaborov a Tajiskistani who pulled off a prank inside a metro rail in Moscow where he collapsed and pretended to have a seizure while his friend announced to the fellow travellers that he was suffering from coronavirus, causing them to panic.
The prank, which was not considered funny, led to the man’s arrest on February 8 on charges of hooliganism which carries a maximum sentence of five years in Russia.
A footage showing a young man wearing a mask and collapsing on the Moscow Metro went viral on social media recently. In the video, the prankster was seen collapsing on the floor and having a seizure as his friends announced to the travellers that he has coronavirus, causing them to panic in the metro.
The incident has ruffled feathers in Russia. A Russian Interior Ministry spokesperson Irina Volk issued a statement regarding the incident in which she said, “Accomplices shouted phrases about the presence of a dangerous viral infection… provoking panic among passengers”.
As per a report in the CNN, the man was later booked by cops and detained for “suspicion of criminal hooliganism”. If convicted, the prankster stands to go to jail for five years. Two of his accomplices have also been identified.
The video appeared on Twitter on February 2 and soon spread to other platforms. However, since the police action, the video has been removed from most platforms including he micro-blogging site.
The suspect’s lawyer Alexei Popov, however, told Russian state news agency TASS that through the prank, Dzhaborov was in fact trying to raise “awareness” about coronavirus. He said that the “prank” video had to be viewed in conjunction with Dzhaborov’s other content for better clarity.
According to AWM, readers on Daily Mail were horrified to hear about the details of this Russian’s prank. Because he was trying to terrorize his countrymen and women as the coronavirus continued to spread beyond the borders of China – which is Russia’s neighbor – people felt he deserved the prison term for his video stunt.
“Not funny at all,” one person wrote.
“The need for attention overrode his minuscule intelligence.”
“Pranksters, take note. It is not funny, and there are consequences.”
“All for the sake of likes. Unbelievable.”
“Two years in a penal colony. Why don’t we have places like that? Somewhere to send people who are a nuisance to wipe the smirk off their faces.”
Watch the video below for more details:
