Mumbai Local Trains Face New Privacy Threat as Police Arrest Man

Mumbai Cyber Police have arrested a 31-year-old man accused of secretly filming women on suburban trains and at railway ticket booking offices, morphing their images into obscene content and sharing it through a fake Instagram account. The accused was produced before a magistrate court at Girgaum, which remanded him to police custody until Sunday, according to the Times of India report.

The case came to light after a college student from south Mumbai discovered that her morphed image had been posted on Instagram. She approached the Cyber Police and lodged a complaint. Investigators removed the image and examined the account, where they found several obscene images and videos involving other women.

Police said much of the material had been recorded on Mumbai local trains and at railway ticket booking offices. The accused allegedly also filmed women while they were walking on the street. Investigators said he travelled daily from Virar to work at a tailoring shop and would board the general compartment next to the ladies’ compartment.

According to the police account, he looked through the partition between the compartments to record women commuters without their knowledge. He allegedly later combined the images with obscene content and uploaded them through a fake Instagram identity. Some posts on the account had received close to one lakh views, police said.