47 YO landlord arrested for secretly recording videos of women using ‘hidden camera’

Mumbai: Rented rooms, hostels, hotels, paying guest accommodations are turning to be the nightmare of a woman these days with hidden cameras in and anywhere inside the rooms violating one’s privacy.

Just days after a 14-year-old teenager was arrested for recording videos of women taking bath in a hostel at Madhapur, a similar disgusting incident is reported from Mumbai.

Hidden cameras can be anywhere, such as an electric plug, a fan regulator, a table clock, a bulb or even a mobile charger. Yes, ladies, your nightmares have already begun.

The DB Marg Police has arrested a 47-year-old landlord for allegedly installing a hidden camera inside the room of three girls who were staying as paying guests in his 4-bedroom upmarket apartment in south Mumbai.

The DB Marg police registered a case against the landlord on December 19 under various IPC sections for outraging the modesty of a woman and the Information Technology Act.

The accused is an unmarried person and stays with his elderly parents.

He had installed the hidden camera in one of the adapters of his end mobile phone and kept a record of the videos as well as audio clippings of his guests, TOI reports.

The accused was caught when he started repeating the conversation of these three girls exactly the way they had said.

“Initially, the girls thought that the accused may be overhearing their talk. One of the girls found an electric adapter fitted in their room. That raised her suspicion and she put a piece of cloth over it. The accused immediately came to the girls’ room under the pretext of checking it and asked the girls as to why they had covered it up,’’ said an officer.

On asking the accused said that it was an antenna booster for his TV.

But when the girls searched for the adapter online they learned it was just another hidden camera available for sale.

The girls immediately approached DB Marg police and lodged their complaint against the landlord.

The Police are now probing whether the accused had recorded any other videos of his former PGs.

A senior police officer working on the case said the police would ensure the girls’ identity be protected.

“These guys will be emboldened further if not checked early,” the officer added.

“In my opinion, Section 66E of the IT Act will apply to the facts of the case. This section punishes violation of a person’s privacy,” said advocate N S Nappinai, a cyber law counsel.

“The punishment being three years imprisonment, unfortunately, makes it a bailable offence when in fact for technology-enabled offences such as these which are a growing menace, the offence ought to be non-bailable,’’ the lawyer added.