Three students of a government college were arrested for allegedly secretly recording women while they were changing their clothes ahead of a cultural event in Madhya Pradesh.
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The incident took place on Tuesday during a youth festival at a college in Mandasur district. Police said that CCTV footage allegedly showed four men sneaking in and taking photos and videos of the women students who were getting ready in the changing rooms. The acting principal of the school brought the suspicious activity to the police’s notice and filed a complaint.
The three arrested students, who were between the ages of 20 and 22, were identified as Umesh Joshi, Ajay Gaud, and Himanshu Bairagi. Joshi, who was a city secretary of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) — the student body linked to the RSS — was removed from his post after the incident.
Police said that while three students were arrested, they are also looking for a fourth. “The CCTV footage clearly shows four boys peeping through the window. Following this, a case was registered. Three of the accused have been arrested, while the fourth is missing. Mobile phones of the arrested students have been seized for forensic examination,” said Mandsaur Superintendent of Police Vinod Meena.
The ABVP, however, claimed that the four students were checking the college canteen room out of suspicion as questionable activities had allegedly taken place there earlier.
“This simple, doubt-driven act was misrepresented by some people, even though the room in question was not a girls’ common room. When some female students mistakenly assumed that photos or videos had been taken, they informed the principal, who then checked the CCTV footage and informed the police. Subsequently, the police took three students to the station and examined their mobile phones, but no photo, video, or any inappropriate material was found,” said ABVP national secretary Kumari Shalini Verma.
A senior police officer probing the case said the arrested accused have been presented in court and their phones are being examined.
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“Although there is no evidence yet that the girls were actually videotaped, we are taking action under applicable laws,” the officer said.
