 "The outrage in Bengaluru over the Instagram account that post videos of women without consent")
In a troubling case that’s left many in Bengaluru furious, a young woman recently found out that she was filmed without her knowledge while walking on Church Street — and the video was later posted on Instagram, where it racked up views and creepy comments.
What’s worse, she wasn’t alone. The account behind the video had been uploading similar clips of women across the city, all without consent.
Despite repeatedly asking for the video to be taken down and even reporting the account, the woman says nothing was done.
Police have now arrested the man running the page. However, they say their attempts to remove the video from the platform haven’t worked so far, blaming Instagram’s internal content policies for the delay.
Here’s a closer look at what happened.
‘Pretend to film ‘chaos’, stalk women’
The whole episode came to light when a Bengaluru student took to Instagram to raise concerns about an account that had been uploading reels of women walking along Church Street — all without their knowledge or consent.
In a video she posted on her own profile, the woman called out the account, writing in the caption, “This person walks around Church Street pretending to film the ‘chaos’, but in reality, all they do is follow women and record them without their consent.”
She said the page, @IndianWalk, which claimed to be showcasing everyday “street fashion,” had more than 10,000 followers — but was in fact stalking women and secretly filming them. Many of the women in the videos looked visibly startled or seemed completely unaware they were being recorded.
After one such video of her was posted, she said she began receiving vulgar messages from strangers online.
“Just because my account is public doesn’t mean I consent to be filmed publicly. That is not how consent works. And this is not how you earn views or build engagement on Instagram,” she added in the caption.
The woman also tagged @blrcitypolice and @cybercrimecid in her post, noting that she couldn’t tag the original page directly as it had already been reported.
Who is the man behind the account?
Following the woman’s complaint, Bengaluru Police arrested 26-year-old Gurudeep Singh, who has been identified as the person running the Instagram account in question.
Singh, a hotel management graduate who is currently unemployed, was picked up from his home in the KR Puram area of Bengaluru, where he lives with his brother, police said.
However, efforts to remove the Instagram account have run into hurdles. According to police, the platform’s internal policies have complicated the process of taking the content down.
Officials have said they’re now preparing to seek judicial intervention to compel Meta, Instagram’s parent company, to pull down the account and its videos.
Social media reacts
The incident triggered a strong reaction online, especially among women who shared similar experiences of being filmed or photographed without consent in public spaces.
“Go to Church Street and there are tons of ‘photographers’ there who take ‘random portraits’, these buggers don’t care about privacy of others and post it without a worry,” one person commented.
Another added, “Contact and file a case with cyber police. They will take action like a similar incident happened before where they used to post videos in metro and they got arrested.”
At the same time, some users seemed unsure about the legal implications of such videos. One wrote, “Yeah, I understand your concern. But it’s a public place. And videography in public places is allowed by Indian laws. I’m not sure how the person is breaking law here? Can anyone explain?”
Not the first case
Sadly, this isn’t an isolated incident in the city.
Just a few weeks ago, an Infosys employee was arrested after he was caught secretly recording women inside the company’s restroom. Police later found over 50 such videos saved on his devices.
In another case from June, police arrested 27-year-old Diganth, an accountant from Hassan district, who was running an Instagram page dedicated to uploading unsolicited clips of women travelling on Bengaluru’s Namma Metro. He admitted to filming the videos during his daily commute and uploading them for attention.
His account, which had more than 5,000 followers, was finally taken down after users flagged it on X and a formal complaint led to an investigation.
With input from agencies
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