HYDERABAD: The director of Sutradhar casting agency Vinay Varma, who was accused of forcing his students to undress during a training session, was arrested by the Narayanaguda police on Tuesday.
One of the woman candidates enrolled for the training programme approached police after Vinay allegedly forced her, along with others, to strip and asked them to ‘leave the room if they were not willing to do so’.
According to police, the 22-year-old victim, a journalism graduate from a reputed college in the city, had enrolled for training at the Sutradhar Institute in Narayanaguda. Eight others apart from her — including seven women — were part of the batch. The two-decade-old casting agency is well-known in the movie industry and has limited seats for training — with a course fee of Rs 25,000.
A week ago, the institute’s director Vinay Varma allegedly closed all windows and doors of the classroom and asked the students — including two women — to remove their clothes. When the candidates refused to do so, he shouted at them and asked them to leave the room if they would not strip. The two women walked out of the room after which one of them approached the police. Inspector of Narayanaguda P Ramesh Kumar said that Vinay Kumar has been arrested and produced before the court.