An influencer went viral for posting a video that looked like he died after jumping in front of a train. Then police arrested him and accused him of faking his own death for clout.

• An influencer in India has been accused of faking his own death for Instagram clout.
• Irfan Khan was arrested after a video edited to look like he jumped in front of a train went viral.
• Khan took the video down. He is now being investigated for trespassing and being a public nuisance.

An influencer in India has been arrested and slapped with multiple charges after a video of him edited to look like he died after jumping in front of a train went viral.

Irfan Khan, 28, better known by his Instagram handle Iffy Khan, posted a now deleted Instagram video last Friday that showed him standing in the middle of a railway track looking distraught. The video then cuts to a snapshot of Khan supposedly lying dead in the middle of the track.

-INDRADEV PANDEY (@INDRADE73401515) July 24, 2021

The video went viral, but the police were not amused by Khan's social-media stunt. Khan, who has close to 45,000 followers on Instagram, was arrested on July 25 at his home in Bandra, an upscale coastal suburb in Mumbai, reported Hindustan Times, an Indian news outlet.

The outlet reported that Khan was slapped with charges, including committing an act to endanger his own life, spreading messages to incite a disturbance online, being a public nuisance, and trespassing.

"Khan claimed that he created the video to increase his followers," Bandra police inspector Devidas Aranye told The Times of India.

"I made it for entertainment purposes. It was a mistake," Khan told Vice. "My intention was never bad or to encourage people to (die by) suicide."

Khan added in his interview with Vice that people had taken the video the "wrong way." He added that the viral video that got him into trouble was part one of a video series he was making.

"In the second part, I would wake up from my dream and see my parents' faces, and the message was meant to be motivational and tell people not to (die by) suicide," Khan said.

Khan's stunt comes at a time when influencers are dying while producing content for social media.

On July 10, Hong Kong influencer Sophia Cheung, 32, who was known for posting daring stunts from her hiking adventures, died after she fell from a waterfall. This week, Chinese TikTok star Xiao Qiumei, 23, fell 160 feet to her death while recording a livestreamed video from a crane.