‘Hidden camera in washroom’: Karnataka police book 3 girls, Udupi college management

One Kalu Singh Chauhan has also been booked after he posted a ‘misleading’ video claiming that the footage was related to the incident in Udupi college.

SP Macchindra said, “The video uploaded… is actually from a Chennai-based YouTube channel… This video has been edited with a background voice in Kannada to depict that it is related to an incident in Udupi. This video has no correlation with the incident in Udupi.”

According to the FIR, the alleged filming incident took place on July 18 between 2:30 pm and 3 pm. The FIR states that a police sub-inspector was sent to the college on July 20 after protests broke out at the institute over the issue.

The college has claimed that the three accused mistakenly filmed another student as part of a prank while the latter was using the toilet. When the incident came to light, the video was deleted in the presence of the victim and the accused girls apologised for their conduct. It has also been claimed that the college management seized three mobile phones but the victim did not want to register a complaint. On July 25, the college management announced the suspension of the three girls during a press meet.

The director of the paramedical college said, “We have already taken necessary legal action and have suspended the students. Once we came to know about the incident, we handed over the mobile phones to the police. We are not at fault if the victim did not wish to register a complaint. But still, we have registered a complaint and the cops have taken it as a petition. Our motto is to give the best education and at the same time ensure safety. But such incidents could have happened in any public area. Since the students are our brand ambassadors, we will speak to them and counsel them in the days to come…”

Meanwhile, the incident took a communal turn after some social media users likened it to ‘jihad’ and local right-wing groups and BJP leaders termed it a ‘ploy to trap Hindu girls’. The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Tuesday wrote to the Udupi SP alleging that the videos were circulated among the relatives of the girls who belonged to the minority community. Whereas, the All College Student Power, a students’ group in Udupi, alleged that the college management silenced the victim.