Chennai: Man arrested for posing as owner, installing hidden cameras in female tenants' rooms

Based on the complaint filed by the hostellers, the Chennai police have arrested Sanjeevi and further investigations are on.  
Image used for representational purpose only.
Image used for representational purpose only.

CHENNAI: In a shocking case, a man has been arrested for allegedly installing hidden cameras inside an apartment which he rented out to seven women at Adambakkam. Police enquiries found that the accused Sampath Raj alias Sanjay, a real estate agent, was not even the original owner of the flat.

He had taken it on rent from another person and posed himself as the house owner in a Facebook page through which he got seven women tenants into the flat where he had planted many hidden cameras.

Police said the voice-activated cameras were installed in places including bathrooms of the flat aimed at recording women.

"On Sunday, one of the women grew suspicious after she found that her hairdryer was not working and pulled out the power plug sockets to find a small camera," said a police officer investigating the case.

She had alerted the police and a team conducted checks in the entire house. Much to their shock, police found small cameras kept hidden in many places, including in night lamps in their bedrooms and in the metal towel rods in the bathroom, said a senior police officer, privy to the case.

Another officer in the Adambakkam police station contradicted saying the cameras were found installed in only three places. The tenants had told police that Sampath used to often visit in the guise of carrying out renovation works in the flat. 

Police are investigating how he operated the cameras. The original owner of the house was a resident of Anna Nagar and from him Sampath had rented the house in September. "The original owner was assuming that Sampath was staying in the house with his family," said a police officer. But Sampath had posed as the owner ofthe flat in a Facebook page that is popular among bachelor men and women to find roommates and houses for rents.

The first woman is said to have moved in October and six others, all of them working in the city, had joined in November. Sampath has been booked under sections of the Information TechnologyAct, 2000, Prevention of Women Harassement Act besides the IPCsections. Police said he is a BE graduate and his wife and childrenare residing at Chitlapakkam

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