A 26-year-old hotel management graduate has been arrested in Bengaluru for posting videos of several women on Instagram without their permission or knowledge. This is the second such arrest in the Karnataka capital.
The arrested man, Gurdeep Singh, is unemployed and is said to be living with his brother.
Police said Singh had been operating the Instagram account which posts videos of women walking in public spaces, primarily at Church Street. The posts would often be of startled or surprised women when the camera points at them. Several videos show women being followed discreetly as the person behind the lens captured footage under the cover of documenting “street chaos.” Many of these videos are slowed down to garner more views.
Banashankari Police, which took up the case on June 12, arrested Singh from his brother’s residence in KR Puram area on Wednesday, July 9.
The case came into the limelight when a woman posted on her Instagram account, alleging that a video has been posted after being recorded without her consent while walking in the city. She attempted messaging the account holder to have the video removed as well as reporting the account to Instagram, but was unsuccessful.
She said many other women also have been recorded the same way. The account has 10,000 followers, and the video was highly viewed, which led to her receiving vulgar messages from strangers on Instagram.
According to the police, efforts to remove the Instagram account have been tricky due to the platform’s internal policies. Police is now preparing to seek judicial intervention to compel Meta, Instagram’s parent company, to remove the account.
A similar case involving another social media account, which gained attention for uploading unsolicited photographs and videos of women travelling on the Bengaluru Metro made the news earlier this year.
Diganth, a 27-year-old from Hassan district, was arrested in June for the same. He admitted to filming women during his daily commute to work. His Instagram handle, which had over 5,000 followers, was flagged by users on X and was eventually removed after a formal complaint and investigation.