In the ’90s Kannada horror films, a ghost typically wore white robes and a wig with long hair that covered its face – and many of us may have scared a sleeping sibling by taking inspiration from the screen. But these seven Bengaluru men took it a notch higher and tried to scare unsuspecting late night commuters in the city. They have now landed in the police net.

The Bengaluru police on Monday arrested seven men for dressing up in white robes, wearing wigs covering their faces and scaring commuters on the road in Sharifnagar near Yeshwanthpur. Videos of the pranks they pulled on several homeless residents and commuters went viral soon after the arrest.

In one of the videos, two men dressed like ghosts are seen running towards an autorickshaw in an attempt to scare the driver. The autorickshaw driver is seen reversing his vehicle and driving away with fear. Several other videos of the group trying to scare motorists have also gone viral.

Around 2am on Monday morning, 20-year-old Shaan Kalik and his friends tried to pull pranks on unsuspecting commuters. While they scared a few of them, an auto driver, whom the group targeted, reported the incident to a beat constable attached with the Soladevanahalli Police Station, who was deployed for duty.

“The auto driver was scared. He initially said that there were ghosts on the road. Soon after he complained, several other commuters too complained of a few youths who were pranking commuters. We arrested seven men later in the day after obtaining some CCTV footage,” DCP North Sashikumar said.

Shaan Nallik (22), Nived (20), Sajeel Mohammed (21), Mohammed Akhyub (20), Saakhib (20), Syed Nabeel (20) and Yousef Ahmed (20) are the arrested accused.

“The boys were trying to pull pranks. They are young and wanted to have some fun but scaring people and causing mischief is illegal and since the auto driver filed a complaint, we had to take action,” a senior police official said.

The seven accused have been booked under sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 504 (insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.

“They procured station bail and have been let off since the offences are bailable,” the Soladevanahalli police said.