CID to investigate Udupi college washroom filming incident: CM

Udupi: The Karnataka government has handed over the case of the three girls allegedly filming a fellow girl student inside a college washroom to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Monday. “There is an allegation that a video was filmed in the toilet of a private college in Udupi, and as this is a sensitive case, it has been handed over to the CID for further investigation,” Chief Minister Siddaramaiah tweeted.

The incident, which took place on July 19, took a political turn with a series of protests in the town demanding action against the three students who allegedly filmed another girl inside the washroom of a college here. The incident was portrayed in certain circles in a communal manner because the victim and the accused belong to different religious communities. National Women’s Commission member and Khushbu Sundar, who is also a member of the BJP, visited Udupi on July 26 to ascertain the truth behind the incident.

As the victim had not filed a formal complaint, police registered a suo motu case in this connection on July 26 at Malpe police station in Udupi and a DySP-level investigation was going on. The BJP held state-wide protests on the issue demanding the arrest of the three girls and an investigation by a special investigation team (SIT) into the incident. Udupi Superintendent of Police Hakay Akshay Machhindra too confirmed that the case has been handed over to the CID. He declined to elaborate on the reason behind handing over the case to the CID.

According to the Netra Jyothi College director Rashmi Krishna Prasad, the incident took place on July 19 and after learning about it, the three girls were suspended from the college the next day. The three girls brought a phone in the college, which is not permitted as per rules, and then they allegedly filmed a girl in the toilet, she said. The girls later told the victim that they filmed her by mistake whereas their target was someone else and then deleted the video, Prasad told PTI. The other college girls got alarmed and reported the matter to the college management when the victim told them about the conduct of the three girls. However, some girls later alleged that the filming in washroom had been going on for the past six months and that the accused had allegedly shared these videos with some boys to blackmail them. However, police said they had found no such videos.

On July 27, Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara had called it “a small incident blown out of proportion”. “That is a small incident. Reports say it happened amongst friends. Should it be blown out of proportion and given a political colour?” Parameshwara had asked. “If a criminal activity has taken place beyond it and if a complaint has been given, then it will come under the jurisdiction of the police department. However, there is neither complaint nor anything else,” he added. The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the students’ wing of the RSS, staged massive protests in the town for several days seeking action against the accused.