BHOPAL: Three student leaders reportedly associated with the BJP's students wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) were arrested in Mandsaur district of western Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday for secretly filming girl students while the girls were changing costumes in a room during the government college’s youth festival.
On Wednesday, the local police station received a complaint from the principal of the Maharaja Yashwant Rao Holkar Government College, which alleged that CCTV footage at the college showed that the girl students were filmed secretly while changing costumes in the changing room, during preparations for an event of the ongoing youth festival at the college on Tuesday.
“The girl students reported the matter to us, after which the CCTV footage of the concerned floor revealed that four male students (all B.A. third-year students) were filming the girls from the ventilator of the changing room. Aiming to prevent the misuse of those visuals, which could have led to the girls resorting to extreme steps, the accused male students were identified and the police were informed about the matter,” the government college’s principal, Dr. Priti Sharma, said.
According to the Bhanpura police station in-charge, after getting the complaint, three of the four accused students have been arrested and booked under BNS Sections 77 and 3(5), which deal with voyeurism and crimes committed with two or more persons with a common intent.
The arrested trio (all B.A. third-year students) have been identified reportedly as ABVP leaders, including ABVP’s local secretary Umesh Joshi, co-in-charge of the college Ajay Gaur, and the saffron student outfit’s worker Himanshu Bairagi.
While all three arrested student leaders were sent into judicial custody by a court, the local police have sent the seized cell phone for forensic analysis to figure out whether more such videos were on the phone or not.