Man arrested for allegedly posting voyeuristic videos of women

A 26-year-old hotel management graduate was arrested by the Banashankari police on Thursday for allegedly posting voyeuristic videos and photographs of women on an Instagram account without their consent.

The accused, Gurudeep Singh, was taken into custody from his residence in KR Puram. The police registered a suo motu case after a woman tagged the Bengaluru City Police on Instagram, alleging that she had been recorded without her knowledge. The woman in a post said that the accused walked around Church Street and pretended to film the city, but actually recorded women without their consent. She also mentioned that other women might have been filmed without their knowledge

Lokesh Jagalasar, DCP (South), said, “The accused, who used to shoot voyeuristic pictures and videos of women and post them online on Instagram, has been arrested vide a suo motu FIR registered at Banashankari police.” He added that the police are also working on taking down the Instagram account.

The FIR was registered against the person under Section 78(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which pertains to stalking, and Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2008, which addresses the electronic transmission of obscene content.

The Instagram account allegedly run by the accused claimed to show “street scenes.” However, investigations revealed that it focused on recording women and zooming in on their bodies. According to the FIR, 45 such videos were uploaded without the women’s knowledge.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah also condemned the incident in a post shared on his official X account and urged the public to report such incidents to the cyber cell by calling 1930 or visiting http://cybercrime.gov.in.