Same Incident, Different City: Delhi Man Hides Cameras In Flat To Record Female Tenant

A 30-year-old man in Delhi was arrested after he allegedly concealed spy cameras in his rented-out apartment to record a female tenant. The accused, identified as Karan, hid the cameras inside bulb holders in the bathroom and bedroom, Shakarpur Police said. The tenant, a Uttar Pradesh native studying for her civil services entrance exams, lived alone in the apartment. Karan lived in the same building on another floor.

The woman recently noticed an unidentified laptop linked to her WhatsApp account and became suspicious that she was being spied on. She searched her apartment for surveillance devices and found the camera installed in the bulb holder in the bathroom. The woman called the Police Control Room, after which a sub-inspector reached her apartment to investigate.

Delhi Man Hides Cameras In Flat To Record Female Tenant

A senior police official told NDTV that another hidden camera was found in her bedroom. When asked if anyone else had access to her apartment, the tenant recalled that she had recently given her keys to Karan when she visited her hometown. During the investigation, Karan confessed that he had purchased three spy cameras, commonly available in the market, and hid them in her apartment while she was gone.

According to senior police officer Apoorva Gupta, the woman told the police that Karan frequently asked the woman for the keys on the pretext of electrical repairs in her room. Since the cameras cannot be operated online, the accused reportedly had to transfer the data to his laptop manually. Police said that one spy camera and two laptops used to store the recorded videos were seized from Karan. 

The accused, who reportedly has a disability, has been booked for voyeurism under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita. Under this law, he may be jailed for at least a year. Police said that further investigations are on.

Similar Incident At Bengaluru College

A horrifying incident unfolded at a college in Bengaluru where a 21-year-old male student was caught filming inside the women's restroom. The Kumbalgodu Police arrested Kushal K, a final year B.Tech student, on September 20. The incident came to light when a female student noticed a phone in the restroom and screamed, alerting other students.

Many students gathered in the women's restroom and found one of the cubicles locked. Despite calls for the person inside to open the door, there was no response. The students then broke open the door and found Kushal hiding inside, a police officer told Deccan Herald.  

"We took Kushal to the principal and informed him that he had been recording videos in the washroom. He admitted to it," one of the students told the publication. The students started protesting, after which two police platoons arrived to control the situation.

The police uncovered two videos on Kushal's phone recorded in the women's restroom. The device has now been sent for forensic analysis, an investigating officer said. Police filed an FIR under Section 77 (voyeurism and the violation of women's privacy) of the BNS Act.

Hidden Camera Found At Andhra College; 300 Videos, Photos Circulated

On August 29, protests broke out at the SR Gudlavalleru Engineering College in Andhra Pradesh on August 29 after a hidden camera was discovered inside a restroom in the women's hostel. Upon investigation, it was found that over 300 videos and photos were discovered on the device. Reports state that the visuals were being circulated among students in the men's hostel. Police have taken one suspect, Vijay-- a final-year engineering student, into custody while an investigation is underway.

A hidden camera has been reportedly found inside the washroom of a girls' hostel in Andhra Pradesh's Krishna district.

The hostel was for the students of SR Gudlavalleru Engineering College, where massive protests have now erupted.

The police have identified the accused as… pic.twitter.com/Pebp1ZEl6d

— Vani Mehrotra (@vani_mehrotra) August 30, 2024

Former police officer V V  Lakshmi Narayana in a post on X (formerly Twitter), “The Gudlavalleru Engineering College incident involving spy cameras in a women's hostel is highly deplorable and a severe breach of privacy. Such incidents demand urgent and strict action. The police must thoroughly investigate and bring the culprits to justice. Additionally, like the legislation in UP, there is a need for new laws to regulate social media and digital platforms, ensuring that such violations are prevented and swiftly punished."

This incident was reported on the same day that a female student at Tamil Nadu's National Institute of Technology Tiruchirapalli was allegedly sexually harassed in her dorm by a male WiFi technician. The students held an overnight protest on campus after the administration allegedly attempted to brush off the incident and blame the survivor for the crime. The accused was later arrested.

Similar Hidden Camera Incidents That Were Reported Recently

Two minor boys, both 14 years old, were apprehended for allegedly using a phone camera to record women in a restroom at a movie theatre in Bengaluru on August 10. The act happened at Urvashi Theatre, where a 23-year-old woman noticed a phone camera hovering over her washroom stall at around 9:45 p.m. She complained to the Kalasipalya Police that she saw the suspects run away as soon as she came out. 

A case under Section 77 (watching, capturing and disseminating private images of a woman without her consent) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) was registered. The police reportedly used CCTV footage to track the two suspects entering the women's restroom.

Same Incident, Same Day, Same City

In a similar incident that occurred on 10 August, a phone was found recording in the women's bathroom at a reputed coffee shop in Bengaluru. The occurrence, at Third Wave Coffee, BEL Road, infringed upon the privacy and dignity that a women's washroom promises. 

The phone was found inside the dustbin inside a bathroom stall. The phone was found recording, with the angle of the camera also such that it was facing the toilet. Over two hours of footage was found recorded. The person behind this was promptly uncovered and punished.  

The incident was posted on social media by Dr Basundhara Ghosh, who gave an account of the incident on her Instagram page @gangsofcinepur, which has over 90,000 followers. She is part of the Physics Department at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru.

It was found upon questioning that the phone belonged to an employee of the outlet, Manoj. According to The Hindu, Manoj had been working at Third Wave Coffee, BEL Road, for the last six months. 

The coffee shop chain also reacted to the incident by expressing its regret through a post on X. After this discovery was made, Manoj was immediately dismissed from the job, as well as being arrested by the police. 

The safety and well-being of our customers is always our priority. Third Wave Coffee has a stringent zero-tolerance policy and the person under question at the BEL Road store has been immediately terminated, with necessary legal action being initiated.

— Third Wave Coffee (@thirdwaveindia) August 10, 2024

Another Incident In Dehradun, Uttarakhand

An employee of a popular restaurant in Uttarakhand's Dehradun was arrested on August 15 after a customer spotted a recording phone camera planted by him inside the women's restroom. The accused, Vinod Kumar, was a cleaner at an eatery called 'Anandam', the police said. The 25-year-old man allegedly deleted all the photos and videos from his phone when he was caught. However, he eventually confessed to the police.

The incident came to light when a woman, identified as Khushboo Sharma, noticed something that looked like a camera from a cut made in the false ceiling of the women’s washroom. She took a picture of it and showed it to her husband, Advocate Paras Sharma, who confirmed that the device was a camera.

Two other women alleged that they saw two men coming out of the women's washroom. Paras told the Indian Express, "We called the manager and informed him about the incident. We went to the washroom again but by then the device was missing." They also checked Vinod's phone, only to find the gallery empty.

Khushboo filed a police complaint at the Cantonment Kotwali police,  after which a First Information Report (FIR) was registered against Kumar and the restaurant owner under Section 77 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) which punishes the act of voyeurism. Vinod later confessed to the crime.