BENGALURU: An IT professional has been arrested after a 19-year-old college student, Neha (name changed), posted a story on Instagram on Saturday, stating that she was molested and touched inappropriately by him. The accused is a known professional photographer and an Instagram influencer with over 13,000 followers.
The post went viral among college students, following which she found that over 20 girls from various colleges in the city within the 18-20 years age group, had faced a similar situation. The cases had been allegedly happening since 2016.
Two formal complaints were lodged at Pulikeshi Nagar police station this week. “The boy has been arrested, and the devices and equipment, such as cameras and hard disks, have been seized from his house,” Rahul Kumar Shahapurwad, Deputy Commissioner of Police (East), said, adding that the case is under investigation.
The photographer, a 26-year-old full-time IT professional, is accused of sending messages to the girls online and gaining their trust and eventually luring them to his home, requesting for a photo shoot to add to his portfolio. Some of the girls claimed that they were asked to strip naked and sit in compromising positions during the shoot.
“A WhatsApp group was created with over 20 girls and that is when we realised the seriousness of the issue,” one of the girls who was molested in 2017 told CE. The girl was asked to strip from the waist down and bend over, she said, recalling the incident. Police say with the two cases registered, the rest of the college students may also come forward to make the case stronger.