"We all come from colleges and know that we have never faced it. Young girls like you have never faced it. We need to understand," she said.
Actor and NCW Member Kushbu Sundar on Udupi incident
National Commission for Women (NCW) member Khushbu Sundar, who visited the Netra Jyothi College in the Udupi district of Karnataka on Thursday, 27 June, to probe the “washroom filming case”, said that there were no hidden cameras in the toilet of the institution as being claimed by many.
The actor-turned-politician said this to dispel rumours and misinformation of the presence of hidden cameras in the toilets.
She also appealed not to believe fake videos and rumours claiming that hidden cameras had been found in the toilet.
Khushbu Sundar, after spending around four hours with the college authorities along with senior police officials on Thursday, told reporters: “Accusations will be there. We will have to wait. We can’t just go by what somebody says. We need evidence.”
She added: “This is not about breaking news. This is about students, about women. So we have to wait. This is not two-minute noodles.”
Khusbu also said: “It is very upsetting to see even the media asking such questions. You (media) should be the first ones to say that those things do not happen. We all come from educational institutions and we know that we have never faced it. Young girls like you have never faced it. We need to understand.”
The BJP leader also said: “If there are rumours of hidden cameras in the toilets, please understand there is nil, nothing to it, zilch. There is a rumour that is going around and a false video that is going around that there are hidden cameras.”
She continued: “It’s an institution and there cannot be any hidden cameras. So, please do not follow such stories.”
“We have been speaking to the police about what they are doing. We are working together now, and we both need each other. The investigation by the police department and investigation from our side will continue, and we will come to a conclusion very soon,” said Khushbu Sundar.
When reporters asked her if the college would be held accountable for the incident, she replied: “You have to wait till we (the NCW) come out with our statement.”
Khushbu, who arrived at Udupi on Wednesday, said that a thorough probe was necessary on the allegations that a video was recorded of a girl in the washroom of the paramedical college in Udupi before jumping to conclusions or giving it a communal angle.
Khushbu on Wednesday met Deputy Commissioner Vidyakumari K and Superintendent of Police Hakay Akshay Machhindra and learnt that no concrete evidence had been found even after an extensive investigation by the police.
The cops have sent the mobile phones of the three girls, who allegedly shot the video, for data retrieval, she said.
Khushbu said the NCW and the police were diligently doing their job and would conduct their respective investigations without acting as judges.
The NCW was committed to protecting women and did not work with any communal angle in mind, she added.
She also urged people to avoid giving this incident a communal angle.
Khushbu also said she was committed to understanding the case fully by engaging with the college administration, students, and the victim during her two-day stay in Udupi.
Meanwhile, Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara on Thursday questioned the need for NCW member Khushbu Sundar’s visit to Udupi to inquire into the alleged “washroom filming case” at a time when the commission had “not gone” to Manipur, where two women were molested and paraded naked recently, with the video of the incident eliciting widespread outrage.
“Is this incident in Udupi of that magnitude?” he asked while talking to reporters in Bengaluru.
“Let them come. I don’t ask ‘who has to come, who has to see’. The Manipur incident… I don’t know what to call it, and there the commission has not gone. Is this incident in Udupi of that magnitude?” asked Parameshwara said in response to a question regarding the NCW’s visit to Udupi.
He added: “I don’t say — you don’t come. Why should you come — I don’t say that… Let them come, but you should also say what you found. Was there any video of this incident or anything?” asked the minister.
The police have filed an FIR against three girl students — Shabanaz, Alfiya, and Alima — and the management of the college where the alleged incident took place last week. The three students have been suspended from the college.
Responding to a question on the delay in filing FIRs in connection with the case, the minister said, “The police were waiting for someone to lodge a complaint. They had to do it suo motu because there was so much attention this (incident) had created.”
Parameshwara on Wednesday said this was “a small incident blown out of proportion”.
Clarifying this remark, he said on Thursday that the intention was not to downplay the case.
He explained that what he meant was the issue should have been left to the college principal to handle, who — after analysing the details — would have escalated it to the parents of the students involved and the police rather than outsiders giving different twists to the issue.
“I and you have studied in colleges and stayed in hostels, and there would have been certain incidents between friends. They would have been left alone and not escalated. I said this, too, might have been of a similar nature,” he said.
Meanwhile, the BJP on Thursday staged a demonstration near Parameshwara’s residence, alleging that the Congress government in Karnataka was supporting “terrorists” and siding with the accused girls in the Udupi case.
The party activists also staged protests in several parts of Karnataka, including the coastal district headquarters town of Udupi, accusing the Congress of indulging in “appeasement politics”.
At Freedom Park in Bengaluru, the women’s wing of BJP staged a sit-in demonstration. The participants shouted slogans, accusing the Congress government of shielding the accused.
The saffron party also alleged that the Congress government was “diluting” the Udupi case.
Due to the police barricades, the activists couldn’t go near the minister’s house. They were all detained and taken away.
Meanwhile, Parameshwara said he never called the Udupi incident an innocent act of children.
In Udupi, students and members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) — a students’ organisation affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh — also staged demonstrations against the Congress government.
During the protest, the ABVP activists — the majority of whom were girls — raised slogans seeking “justice”.
They also sought to know why there was a delay in registering a case. They demanded an independent and fair inquiry into the case.
In Bengaluru, the activists raised slogans near Parameshwara’s residence alleging that he was preparing the grounds to withdraw police cases against the accused in the DJ Halli and KG Halli riots in Bengaluru three years ago.
The Dalit of then-sitting Congress MLA Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy — a Dalit — and KG Halli police stations were torched.
Three people were killed and over 50 injured in the riots that erupted in DJ Halli and KG Halli, allegedly due to a derogatory social media post by a relative of Murthy in August 2020.
Parameshwara had asked officials to examine the request by a Congress MLA to withdraw cases against “innocent” youths and students, who were arrested under “false cases” in connection with protests and riots in not just DJ Halli and KG Halli, but also in Shivamogga and Hubballi, among other places.
The Opposition BJP reacted sharply to this and accused the Congress government in the state of giving a “clean chit to the communal criminals of a specific community, and playing to the tune of Jihadists and PFI terrorists”.
Parameshwara, in a 19-July note to the Principal Secretary of Prisons, Civil Defence and Auxiliary Services (PCAS) under the Home Department, cited a request letter by Narasimharaja MLA and former minister Tanveer Sait in this regard.
“It has been requested that innocent youths and students have been arrested under false cases in connection with protests and riots in Bengaluru’s DJ Halli and KG Halli, Shivamogga, Hubballi and other places, and to withdraw cases in accordance with rules, after review. It is instructed to take necessary action in this regard after review,” the home minister’s note stated.
(With PIT inputs)
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![[Left] File photo of BJP MLA Harish Poonja, who has been booked, and [right] Poonja sitting for a protest in front of Belthangady Police Station in the early hours of Sunday, 19 May, 2024.](https://s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/media.thesouthfirst.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Harish-Poonja-and-Belthangady.jpg "Harish Poonja and Belthangady")
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