Chennai Shocker! Hi-Tech Spy Cameras Installed Inside Women Hostel’s Rooms; Owner Arrested

Chennai: In a ghastly incident reported from Chennai, a private women’s hostel owner in Adambakkam was arrested for installing hidden cameras inside hostel rooms and girl’s bathrooms. The accused, 48-year-old Sampath Raj alias Sanjay, was running a hostel for working women in a house he had rented.

According to police, Sanjay rented this flat from someone in Anna Nagar and was renting three bedrooms in the house to seven girls. The girls had paid Rs 20,000 in advance and also gave a monthly rent of Rs 5,500 per person. What is more shocking is that the hostel was in operation since September and he might have obtained a large amount of obscene videos of the tenants.

A techie who was staying in the hostel identified the hidden cameras while she was using the bathroom. She kept trying to plug a hair dryer to into a socket inside the bathroom but it wouldn’t turn on. She became suspicious and dismantled the socket and saw that there was a hidden camera inside the cavity.

Subsequently, she downloaded a hidden camera detector application on her phone and to her shock, discovered a total of six cameras inside the hostel. Alarmed women tenants then rushed to Adambakkam Police Station and registered a complaint against the hostel owner.

When police raided the premises, they found hidden cameras in a wall clock, light bulb, window curtains and even in the showers meant for use by female tenants. The cameras were sophisticated and turned on upon detecting activity and could be operated wirelessly. They were even equipped with night vision so that videos could be taken in dark or dimly lit areas.

A memory card has been seized from the hostel which contains 20 videos. The arrested hostel owner is native of Kerala and shifted to Chennai after completing his engineering studies. He often visited the hostel on the pretext of ‘renovation work’.

Police have seized a smartphone, a smart watch and a laptop from Sanjay and a case has been registered under five sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The incident has left many hostel tenants in Chennai wary about their privacy being compromised.

Courtesy | Mirror Now