The Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj cybercrime police station, on Thursday, arrested a 27-year-old man identified as Amit Kumar Jha for recording and uploading videos online of women bathing and changing clothes during the recently concluded Maha Kumbh festival in Prayagraj, attended by millions of pilgrims across the globe.
According to the police statement, Jha, a resident of Baro Khejuria of Magra in West Bengal’s Hooghly district, had been filming the women while taking a holy dip at the Sangam and then uploaded these illicit contents on his YouTube channel.
During the police interrogation, Jha admitted to the heinous crime and claimed that he did this to monetize his YouTube channel to gain more followers and earn money through these disturbing videos.
Police also confiscated an Android mobile phone from his possession, which was allegedly used to record and upload the offensive content.
Meanwhile, Jha has been booked under various sections of 296, 79 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, including sections of the IT Act. He was produced in court and sent to jail.
The arrest of Jha comes a week after several media outlets uncovered reports of private video recordings of women at Kumbh Mela being sold online through Telegram channels and other platforms for financial gain.
Soon after the reports emerged, DIG Kumbh Vaibhav Krishna ordered police to initiate an investigation into the case.
