The Udupi police asserted that the incident was not communal and that an unrelated old video was being used to flare up tensions.
right-wing social media handles tried to attribute a communal colour. (Creative Commons)
The Udupi police on Tuesday, 25 July, categorically denied any communal angle in the Udupi college incident in which three women students of a paramedical institution were suspended for allegedly recording another student in the ladies’ room.
What seemed like an incident of bullying was given a communal spin with allegations of “jihad” and speculations of a “statewide network to target Hindu women” by several handles, including the Karnataka BJP’s official social media pages.
This compelled the police to clarify that there was no communal angle to the incident. An old and unrelated video being circulated with false claims added to the sensitive situation.
After the Karnataka police landed at the doorstep of Rashmi Samant — the owner of one of the accounts that peddled misinformation about the incident — to verify details of her claims, BJP leaders in the state deemed it “harassment”.
Yashpal Suvarna, the BJP MLA from Udupi, even visited the residence of Rashmi Samant to show solidarity and warned against police action.
Even as the police deemed the incident a “prank that went wrong”, several right-wing social media handles exaggerated details, added misinformation, and attributed communal colours to the incident, claiming that the students accused of recording the video belonged to a minority community.
The Udupi district’s Superintendent of Police (SP) Hakay Akshay Machhindra said it was an isolated incident, and reiterated that there were no communal intentions involved in it.
Machhindra also corroborated the official version. “Our probe has not revealed anything communal. Our sources confirmed that there were no other videos and the ones that were circulating are either old or from other states,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
Incidentally, an old video that was being circulated carried doctored audio, which gave the impression that it was related to the Udupi incident.
Speaking to South First, Additional Superintendent of Police ST Siddalingappa also asserted that there was nothing more to the incident.
“We probed the incident of the girls filming a fellow girl student in the restroom, and we found nothing beyond it. The video has been deleted and there are no other videos doing the rounds,” he claimed.
The Netra Jyothi College in the communally sensitive Udupi district suspended three women students of Optometry on 20 July for allegedly recording the video of a fellow student belonging to a different community in the institute’s toilet.
College director Rashmi Krishna Prasad said the incident occurred on 19 July. It came to light after the student who was videographed informed her friends, who in turn alerted the college.
The three students were suspended on two counts: They brought a mobile phone — which is banned in the college — into the institution, and they recorded the video, news agency PTI quoted the college director as saying.
Prasad said the three students told the other student that they were “pranking” someone else and she was inadvertently videographed. They reportedly deleted the video in front of her, the director added.
The college’s Academic Coordinator Balakrishna said the student did not want to pursue the complaint.
“The girl student who was videographed has given in writing that she does not want to register a complaint. However, we have brought the incident to the notice of the police and even handed over the seized mobile phone to the cops so that they could examine if any other videos were taken or forwarded to others,” he told South First.
Soon after the news of the suspension became public, several social media handles claimed that the students were part of a “larger jihadist network” and that a mere suspension was not enough.
Right-wing social media handles demanded a police complaint against the three students and sought a fair investigation to reveal their “real intentions”.
The one-off incident was exaggerated as an attempt to target “hundreds of unsuspecting Hindu girls”, with right-wing handles claiming that the videos were “circulated in community WhatsApp”. Both claims were incorrect and misleading, as per the police investigation.
A right-wing organisation — the All College Student Power — joined the clamour and asked the college to register a complaint instead of waiting for the aggrieved student to go to the police. The organisation later said it had accepted the police’s explanation.
However, the college authorities maintained that since the student was not willing to complain, they would put the issue to rest. However, it did end up alerting the police.
The college witnessed tense moments on Monday and Tuesday as several right-wing organisations demanded a comprehensive probe.
Police sources said the development made the suspended students fear that the incident would snowball into a major controversy — like the one over hijab in January 2022.
The student who was videographed did not lodge a complaint fearing that her identity could be revealed, the police said.
Meanwhile, one Rashmi Samant, who claimed to be from Udupi, posted on X (previously Twitter): “I’m from Udupi and nobody is talking about Alimatul Shaifa, Shabanaz and Aliya who placed cameras in female toilets of their college to record hundreds of unsuspecting Hindu girls. Videos and photos that were then circulated in community WhatsApp groups by the perpetrators. [sic]”
I’m from Udupi and nobody is talking about Alimatul Shaifa, Shabanaz and Aliya who placed cameras in female toilets of their college to record hundreds of unsuspecting Hindu girls. Videos and phots that were then circulated in community WhatsApp groups by the perpetrators.
— Rashmi Samant (@RashmiDVS) July 23, 2023
“How to whitewash a crime 101. Call the criminal recording of a female toilet a prank! I am from Udupi and absolutely ashamed to see this level of absolute BS [sic],” she said in another tweet.
Soon after Samant’s tweet went viral, fact-checker Alt News identified the profiles spreading misinformation and fake news and put out a tweet:
Will @PoliceUdupi take action against these accounts for amplifying misinformation related to Udupi?
C'C: @DrParameshwara @DgpKarnataka @HMOKarnataka pic.twitter.com/XY0e5f4FBB— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) July 24, 2023
It also rapped a leading publication for spreading misinformation despite having a fact-checking team.
Article by @IndiaToday amplifies the misinformation by quoting these Right wing accounts, Founder @aroonpurie has a fact fact-check team @AFWACheck, associated with International Fact Check Network @factchecknet, Instead of fact checking these claims, They amplify misinformation. pic.twitter.com/PXDbxD69gk
— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) July 24, 2023
Following Alt News’ tweet, a police team visited Samant’s house in Udupi to verify her claims.
However, Samant, who was not present at her house, accused Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair of “inciting mobs against Hindu women”, giving the issue a more communal colour.
Classic @zoo_bear trying to incite mobs against the Hindu women @ShefVaidya like he did to Nupur Sharma. Udupi is my home and I will not be intimidated into silence by the misinformation you peddle in the name of fact-checking. Now I don’t have the time to teach you Kannada. https://t.co/8W4mPqHUhQ pic.twitter.com/LyrWZFEcJC
— Rashmi Samant (@RashmiDVS) July 24, 2023
Meanwhile, Adhitya Srinivasan, an advocate representing Samant, tweeted: “At 8:00 PM this evening, a group of policemen visited the residence of my client, @RashmiDVS. As Rashmi was not at home at the time, it was her parents who were questioned by the police and repeatedly asked about Rashmi’s whereabouts. [sic]”
1. At 8:00 PM this evening, a group of policemen visited the residence of my client, @RashmiDVS . As Rashmi was not at home at the time, it was her parents who were questioned by the police and repeatedly asked about Rashmi’s whereabouts.
— Adhitya Srinivasan (@ads_0013) July 24, 2023
A senior police officer explained why they wanted to verify Samant’s claim.
“We were informed by a few organisations, including a students’ outfit, that a video was being circulated. But when we examined it, we found it to be an old video with doctored audio, which gave the impression that it was recorded in Udupi,” he told South First.
“Since the rumours or misinformation were still being circulated, we started verifying with all people involved, including Twitter handles that were forwarding such posts,” he added.
The official handle of the Karnataka unit of the BJP, @BJP4Karnataka, condemned the police visiting Samanth’s house.
The anti-Hindu @INCKarnataka govt is now normalising intimidation and harassment against Hindus for standing against institutional persecution.
On the instruction of Jihadi elements, the Siddaramaiah govt has unleashed its police force to target an Indian citizen for tweeting…
— BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) July 25, 2023
It later even took on Karnataka Minister for IT/BT and Rural Development & Panchayat Raj Priyank Kharge — the son of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge — and said the “troll minister” must be “held accountable”.
Troll Minister @PriyankKharge must be held accountable for Jihadi elements unleashing online lynch mobs against Hindu women for standing up for the rights of Hindu students in Udupi.
It is the direct result of not only emboldening these extremist elements referring to them as…
— BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) July 25, 2023
Meanwhile, the All College Student Power — the outfit that demanded a thorough probe into the matter — declared on Tuesday that the police had informed them that the video that was being circulated was not the leaked one, but was an older video from Tamil Nadu.
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