World

Indian men arrested for harassing South Korean livestreamer

December 01, 2022
Hyojeong Park shared a clip of the incident on Instagram
Hyojeong Park shared a clip of the incident on Instagram

MUMBAI — Police in India's Mumbai city have arrested two men for harassing a South Korean woman while she was livestreaming a video.

The incident took place on Tuesday night as Hyojeong Park, who is known by the name Mhyochi on social media, was walking through the city.

The video shows one of the men putting his arm around Ms Park, 24, and kissing her on the cheek.

The men have been charged with molestation, news agency ANI reported.

Ms Park, who has more than 12,000 followers on livestreaming service Twitch, usually posts videos of herself playing video games and trying out food.

She has been in India for a few weeks and has been documenting her experiences through live vlogs.

On Tuesday, she was walking through Mumbai's Khar neighborhood while interacting with her followers and people on the road when she was approached by a man.

The video on Twitch shows the man grabbing her arm and trying to pull her onto his motorbike. He also tries to kiss her cheek.

Ms Park, looking visibly shaken, manages to walk away from him, saying "time to go home". But the man and a friend then follow her on the bike and ask her for her phone number.

Finally, another man crosses the road to help her and asks them to stop.

The video also shows Ms Park running to a hotel, where she ends the video after saying she is safe.

She later shared a clip of incident as an Instagram story, saying in the caption that she tried her best "not to escalate the situation".

Ms Park also said some Twitch commenters blamed her for the harassment because she had been "too friendly" and had initiated a conversation with the man when he approached her.

But others defended her and asked her to report the incident to the police.

On Wednesday, a Twitter user shared the clip, calling the behaviour of the men "disgusting". The user also tagged the Mumbai police, saying the incident should not go "unpunished".

The police then reached out to both the user and Ms Park on Twitter, asking for more details about the incident. Later, they tweeted that the men had been arrested. — BBC


December 01, 2022
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