Chandigarh hostel row: Police, university administration dismiss claims of objectionable videos

CHANDIGARH: Indian police have arrested a girl and her boyfriend accused of voyeurism — following the outrageous row at Chandigarh University — and said that "no videos have been found or sent from the suspect's phone except for her own."

According to NDTV, the protests were fuelled in the university of Punjab’s Mohali after rumours sparked that a girl had made 60 controversial videos of hostel girls to put them in a compromised position. The news consequently spread panic among new students who did not know each other.

Following the outrage on social media, Punjab police formed a Special Investigation Team to probe the matter. The chief minister of Punjab also ordered a high-level inquiry.

University’s Pro-Chancellor Dr RS Bawa, while dismissing the allegations, issued a statement today and said: "The rumour which is circulating on media that 60 objectionable MMS have been found of students... is totally false and baseless".

"So far, in our investigation, we have found out that there is only one video of the accused herself. She has not recorded any other video of anyone else," said Mohali police chief Vivek Soni.

It turned out that the girl had shared her own clip with her boyfriend from Himachal Pradesh, whose role is also under the scanner.

According to senior Punjab Police officer Gurpeet Deo, the police have inquired from 50-60 women living in the same hostel but most of them are newcomers and do not know each other.

"I want to clarify that the students are now happy because their concerns have been addressed. The students needed clarification on whether the suspect's phone had videos of other girls. Prima facie, we did not come across any such videos," she said.

Further investigation will be carried out by the police, as the area around the bathroom is also being checked for hidden cameras and the phone of the suspect has been sent for forensic tests, which can spot and recover the deleted videos in case any.

Ms Deo further said: "Even if the girl was sharing her video which you may say is a private affair between a boy and a girl, but what if tomorrow that youth misuses the video? Earlier too, we have handled cases in which such videos have gone viral on social media”.

The matter came into the spotlight after three or four women students/hostlers claimed they spotted the suspect taking photos in the common washroom from underneath the door which led to a row of outrageous protests in the university.