Tata Women’s Hostel Scandal: Employee's Friend Arrested from Bengaluru’s Electronic City

Krishnagiri Police on Thursday arrested a 22-year-old Tata Electronics employee and her Bengaluru-based male friend for allegedly planting a hidden spy camera in a bathroom at Vidiyal Residency, the company’s sprawling women’s hostel in Nagamangalam that houses over 6,000 female workers. The device, discovered on November 2 taped behind a sanitary bin in a second-floor bathroom shared by women from northern states, triggered outrage and a massive protest by hundreds of residents who blocked the Hosur-Sipcot main road demanding immediate action.

The prime accused, Neelukumari Gupta from Odisha, who joined Tata Electronics’ Hosur plant only three months ago, confessed to installing the camera at the instigation of her friend Santhosh, 25, a private firm employee from Bengaluru. Police said the duo met on Instagram six months ago and became close; Santhosh allegedly pressured Gupta to record explicit videos, promising to delete them after personal use. The camera, a ₹1,200 Chinese-made pinhole device purchased online, was fitted with a 128-GB memory card and recorded for nearly 12 hours before being detected by a Jharkhand woman during her bath.

Tata Electronics suspended Gupta immediately and terminated her hostel accommodation while cooperating fully with the investigation. Santhosh was nabbed from Bengaluru’s Electronic City on November 5 after Gupta revealed his details during interrogation. Both have been charged under sections 354-C (voyeurism), 419 (impersonation), 420 (cheating), and 66-C of the IT Act, with police seizing their mobile phones containing recovered chat logs where Santhosh allegedly coached Gupta on hiding the device and promised marriage if she complied.

Also Read: Tata Electronics Employee Arrested for Installing Spy Camera in Women’s Hostel Bathroom

The incident has sent shockwaves through Tamil Nadu’s industrial belt, where thousands of young women migrate for jobs at electronics giants. Hostel residents, mostly aged 18-25 from Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar, and West Bengal, have demanded 24/7 women security guards, biometric entry, and mandatory CCTV in common areas but not inside bathrooms. With both accused remanded to 15-day judicial custody at Hosur court, the case has exposed alarming vulnerabilities in worker accommodation security, prompting the district administration to order surprise inspections across all 42 Tata-affiliated hostels housing 18,000 women by next week.

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