Doc’s captions on videos of spat spark harassment case

What began as a petrol station spat between two men has escalated into an anti-harassment case involving YouTube videos.

A district court yesterday ordered Dr K. Paramesvaran, who is better known as Dr Param, to remove the captions he had put into two videos that he uploaded detailing his run-in with Frenchman Yannick Pierre Yves Le Borgne at a Caltex station last April.

The order is an interim one until the case is settled in court.

This is believed to be the first time that a court has issued an expedited protection order (EPO) under the Protection from Harassment Act, landmark legislation passed last year which, among other things, seeks to curb online harassment.

Unlike a protection order, an EPO is issued on a temporary basis to prevent further alleged harassment until a case is settled.

The court has also ordered that the captions cannot be printed by any other parties.

The videos seem to have been taken from closed-circuit television footage at a petrol station in the Holland Road area.

In one 6.5-minute video, Dr Param, managing director of Medical Imaging, which runs a chain of radiological clinics, is seen paying at the petrol kiosk’s counter.

A Caucasian man then approaches the doctor from behind, and starts talking to him.

He points his finger several times, and is also seen patting Dr Param on the shoulder.  Click here