Privacy under siege

Strap (Page 1): From metros to office loos, hidden cameras stalk women across the city — privacy is no longer private.

Strap (Page 7): Voyeur crimes spike in city — with every click, a woman’s dignity is filmed and violated

Blurb:

With cheap data, anonymous platforms, and the allure of online ‘likes’, voyeurism has gone digital — and accountability is lagging.

Byline: Ravi Kiran

A 26-year-old man was arrested this week for allegedly recording videos of unsuspecting women in public spaces and uploading them to Instagram with sleazy captions — the latest in a disturbing string of voyeurism cases surfacing across Banaglore.

The accused, Gurudeep Singh, was picked up by Banashankari police after a woman, featured in one of his videos, tagged the Bengaluru City Police on Instagram and demanded action. The police acted suo motu and booked Singh under Section 78(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Section 67 of the Information Technology Act.

According to DCP (South) Lokesh Jagalasar, Singh targeted women in high-footfall areas like Church Street, filming them from various angles without consent. At least 45 such videos had been uploaded to his Instagram profile. One woman, now identified as a complainant, began receiving vulgar messages soon after the video featuring her was posted.

“Just because someone is on a public street or has a public Instagram profile doesn’t mean they’re giving consent to be filmed,” she reportedly told police.

CM breaks silence

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has come down hard on a disturbing trend of women being secretly filmed in public and their videos uploaded online with sleazy captions — calling it a “shameful breach of dignity” and warning that such acts have no place in Karnataka.

“It pains me deeply. This is not the Karnataka we stand for,” the CM said in a strongly worded post on X on Thursday.

The CM assured that his government had acted swiftly. “Many such incidents have been reported in the last few days. The offenders have been arrested. We are monitoring these activities closely,” he said.

“Where is our society headed if women cannot walk freely without fear of voyeurism or harassment?” he asked, urging citizens to report such content to cybercrime authorities by calling 1930 or visiting cybercrime.gov.in.

 Not a one-off

What’s emerging is a chilling pattern — women across the city, from metro stations to tech parks, are increasingly being targeted by anonymous predators armed with smartphones and social media handles.

In May 2025, police booked an Instagram page titled metro_chicks for posting voyeuristic videos of women travelling on Namma Metro. The account had over 5,000 followers and posted 14 videos zooming in on female passengers’ torsos, often accompanied by suggestive background music and captions like “finding beautiful girls on Namma Metro.” While the Telegram channel linked to the account was taken down, the Instagram handle reportedly remains active.

The FIR in that case was filed under the same sections as Singh’s arrest — Section 67 of the IT Act and Section 78(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

In another alarming case on July 1, a woman employee at Infosys’s Electronics City campus caught a man allegedly filming her inside a women’s restroom. The accused, Swapnil Nagesh Mali, a senior consultant, was arrested the same day. Police recovered 30+ videos of different women from his phone, some stored, others recovered from the recycle bin.

The victim had walked into the restroom to find a man crouched on a toilet seat in the adjacent stall, filming her through a gap.

A digital epidemic

Incidents of this nature are far from new. Last year, a customer at a Third Wave Coffee outlet in Bangalore found a phone hidden in the washroom dustbin, lens peeking through a hole cut into the bin liner. The device had been recording for two hours — in flight mode, to stay silent.

“I will be vigilant at any washroom I use from now on, no matter how well-known the place is. This is disgusting,” the woman who discovered the phone had posted on Instagram. Activists say the rise in such cases points to a normalisation of voyeurism — and the gap between online violation and real-world trauma is narrowing dangerously.

“From cafes and corporate offices to public transport, women are constantly being watched, filmed, and objectified without consent. The tech may be modern — but the mindset is medieval,” said a city-based women’s rights advocate, requesting anonymity.

With cheap data, anonymous platforms, and the allure of online ‘likes’, voyeurism has gone digital — and accountability is lagging. The arrests made this year have barely scratched the surface of a much deeper problem.

 

BOX – I

The Laws That Protect Your Privacy

Section 77 – BNS (2023): Voyeurism

Illegal to watch, film, or photograph a woman during private acts without consent — including in restrooms or other intimate settings. Sharing such content is also punishable.

Penalty: Jail and/or fine. Harsher punishment for repeat offenders.

 

Section 78 – BNS (2023): Stalking

Covers repeated following, contacting, or online surveillance of a woman against her will.

First offence: Up to 3 years in jail + fine

Repeat offence: Up to 5 years in jail + fine

Exceptions apply if done under lawful authority or for crime prevention.

 

Section 67 – Information Technology Act (2000)

Publishing or sharing obscene, lascivious, or sexually explicit content online is a criminal offence.

First offence: Up to 3 years jail + Rs 5 lakh fine

Repeat offence: Up to 5 years jail + Rs 10 lakh fine