Arrested Chennai YouTuber collected funds but did not submit money, says temple committee member

Chennai-based YouTuber, Karthik Gopinath, was arrested for embezzling funds under the guise of renovating statues of a temple under the purview of the HR&CE. A member of the temple’s executive committee said that although he collected the funds, he did not submit the money to the authorities.

Karthik Gopinath, the Chennai-based YouTuber who was arrested on May 30 by the police had allegedly contacted the temple to get a quotation for the renovation, but he never submitted the collected money, said a temple executive committee member.

Karthik Gopinath was arrested by the Avadi Police, Central Crime Branch (CCB), for embezzling funds under the guise of renovating sub-temples of a temple under the purview of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE).

A case was filed under Sections 406 and 420 of the IPC, against Karthik Gopinath for collecting money from the public for renovating statues of the sub-temples “without permission from the HR&CE.” He was denied bail by Poonamallee Court on Wednesday, June 1.

Karthik Gopinath had visited the sub-temples of Arulmigu Madhura Kali Amman temple in Chennai with a team and had posted a video raising suspicion over how the statues were broken.

IndiaToday spoke to a temple executive committee member from Siruvachur, who explained that a miscreant was identified for targeting the temple and vandalising the statue twice.

“When it first happened in October, we were able to trace him using CCTV. The second time, when the statues were vandalised, we waited and caught him in the act,” he stated.

“But, it looked like the culprit was mentally unstable and told us that he broke the statues because he couldn’t get married even after visiting the temple several times,” added the committee member.