MADURAI: Four youths in

made a fake

hunting video to gain popularity on

, but what they lost was Rs 1.2 lakh as

. They also had to release another video apologising for their “foolish act.”

The accused have been identified as S Nagaraj, who worked as a foreman in Muscat and returned to his native village recently, and his friends S Marichamy, a daily wage earner, S Anandaraj, an earthmover operator, and C Anand Kumar, a student. All of them hail from Maiparai village near Puliyangudi in Tenkasi district.

Nagaraj and his friends were making videos on the TikTok app during the lockdown period. Some of their videos were popular. In a bid to take their popularity to the next level, they made a fake leopard hunting video.

Forest department officials said earlier last week the youths shot a video by setting fire in a crevice on a rock at Poonai Parai near their village and pretended to be ready with logs to catch a leopard. However, no leopard was shown in the video. The video was uploaded on a social media platform on Thursday.

The 15-second video got nearly one lakh views. The video came to the notice of forest officials at Kovilpatti in Tuticorin district. During inquiry, the officials came to know that the place where it was recorded was in Tenkasi district.

Kovilpatti forest officials picked up two of the accused and alerted their counterparts in Sankarankovil range, who picked up the others two.

“There is no leopard in this region and the accused had recorded the video with a misleading message only to gain popularity. It did not go well,” a forest official said.

Since the misleading video had reached many, Sankarankovil range officer P K Stalin and Puliyangudi forester M Ashok Kumar made the accused to record another video, in which Nagaraj apologised and asked people not to resort to such mischief. It was shared on the social media platform where the earlier video had been posted.

“I was arrested by the forest department for creating a rumour and sharing the video. I am here because of my mistake,” he said. Nagaraj added that hunting wild animals was a crime and that people should take effort to conserve them.

The four were booked under Section 9 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, which prohibits hunting.

The four youths were released on bail after they paid a fine of Rs 1.2 lakh (Rs 30,000 each).