An Indian man has spoken out after being wrongly accused of attempting to meet a minor in a livestreamed sting by a Russian YouTuber, who has since issued a public apology acknowledging the mistake.
The creator, who goes by Vitaly on social media, acknowledged that he and his team had incorrectly identified Akash Singhania as a suspected child predator in a now-deleted video.
Singhania maintained that he was communicating with an 18-year-old, not a 16-year-old as claimed by the girl who was part of the team.
He eventually called the police, who arrived at the scene and assessed the situation. Authorities later confirmed that he had not engaged in any wrongdoing.
Russian YouTuber Vitaly issued an apology across platforms, including Instagram and X, saying that the video has been removed from all platforms and asked others to delete any saved copies.
Akash Singhania later shared his own account of the incident on X, saying the false accusation had upended his life and welcomed the apology, but also stressed the importance of due process.
