New Delhi:
Girls and women are often taught how to spot a hidden camera or be aware of two-way mirrors in public places because of the perverts that hide behind decent faces. In yet another horrifying incident, in what is called an intrusion of personal space, a precaution often told for safety turned into a reality when a group of young girls living in a women's hostel in Chennai found out that their lives were secretly being filmed by their landlord.
The landlord, whose name has been disclosed as one Sampath Raj alias Sanjay in Adambakkam, had hidden several cameras in the house and was secretly monitoring their every movement.
This horrifying incident came to light when one of the girls staying at the hostel found a camera inside a socket. On reporting the shocking incident, the officers found a total number of nine cameras installed, all carefully stocked away by the owner. Three cameras were found in the plug sockets, two were found inside lamp bulbs, three inside wristwatches and one on the hanger inside the wardrobe.
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The women told authorities that they had come across the house through a Facebook group called Flats & Flatmates where were all paying a rent of Rs 5,500 per person in addition to the advance security of Rs 20,000.
The investigating officer of the case told the media, "The first one was found by a girl when she was using the bathroom. She kept trying to plug a hair dryer into the socket and realised that the plug wouldn't go in. She became suspicious and dismantled it and saw that there was a hidden camera. Following this, a complaint was filed at the Aadambakkam station and we went to investigate."
The Chennai Police have arrested the man after the police received a complaint from the women tenants on December 2.
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The police have also confiscated three laptops, two tablets, 10 mobile phones and one hard disk from Sampath Raj before he was sent to jail.
Reportedly Sampath had installed the cameras while renovating the house and apparently kept changing their positions till he got a proper view. He is also said to have often the house on the pretext of checking the rooms.
"We arrested him and have booked him under sections of the IT Act. We will conduct further investigations to see how far this issue goes," the officer added.
