He owned a garage full of luxury cars and fast bikes, amassed millions of followers and managed to achieve the holy grail of people seeking fame: The chance to become a contestant on Bigg Boss.
Then the curtain of glitz lifted, revealing a man plumbing the depths of despair, and finding no way out.
On Saturday, he livestreamed himself driving at over 150kmph, fighting back tears as he tells his mother he needed love from her and did not get any, before turning deliberately into the median barriers on the highway.
The first cracks began showing when YouTuber – and one of India’s best-known motovloggers – Anurag Dobhal, popularly known as UK07 rider, posted a video a couple of days ago in which he alleged he was being tortured and harassed by his family because he had married his girlfriend, who is from another caste.
“Over the last few months, meri life itni drastically change hui hai ki maine kabhi nahi socha tha ki zindagi aise patak ke chhod degi (My life has changed drastically in the past few months. I never thought life would deal me a hand like this),” he said in the video.
Dobhal said he was depressed and contemplating suicide, adding that his family would be responsible for his death.
Then came the livestream on Saturday.
In an Instagram live while speeding on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway in Ghaziabad’s Masuri area in a Toyota Fortuner, Dobhale, his eyes red and choking back tears, shouts, “And I hope… Agle janam aaun mummy, to pyaar de dena bas, pyaar de dena babu. Bahut zaroorat thi pyar ki. (When I return in my next birth, please give me love, mummy. I desperately needed love),” he says.
Groaning and exhaling hard in a visible effort to contain his emotions, he says another thing he needed was courage and encouragement, and he had no one left to turn to, no one he could call.
Ironically, 82,000 people were watching the Instagram livestream, sending him heart and crying emojis, trying to tell him they were with him and understood his pain.
“Let’s go for the final drive,” Dobhal is heard saying as he turns the camera towards the windshield and speedometer, which shows the SUV going at over 150 km per hour. Dobhal is seen overtaking a bus and another vehicle from the left, before screaming “and it’s goodbye”; turning the steering hard towards the right, and crashing into the barriers.
After being informed by passersby, police arrived at the scene and got Dobhal admitted to the Subharti hospital in Meerut, where his condition remains critical.
‘Just Want To Sleep’
In the earlier video, titled “The last message”, Dobhal, who was a contestant on Bigg Boss 17, said his parents refused to accept his marriage to his girlfriend, Ritika, who is from another caste, in May last year and would not let them live in their house.
“I was made to fold my hands and beg, made to touch their feet. I was forced to apologise in front of all the relatives. My father and mother tortured me to the extent that they said, ‘We will neither stay happy ourselves nor let you stay happy’,” he said.
The YouTuber said Ritika, who he claimed was a fan and had been messaging him for years before he replied, had also left him because of the harassment.
