The row over videos of women bathing at Maha Kumbh being sold online

Crores of devotees from across the country and the world have taken a holy dip at Maha Kumbh Mela in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj. As the 45-day-long religious gathering nears its end, worrying news has come to light.

Reports claim explicit photos and videos of women bathing at the Maha Kumbh are being sold online. The Uttar Pradesh Police has taken note and started legal proceedings against such accounts.

Let’s take a closer look.

Women’s explicit videos being sold online

As per an India Today report, several videos of women bathing purportedly at the Maha Kumbh are present on social media sites like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.

Many such clips lead people to Telegram, which is allegedly providing full videos of such objectionable content.

Videos of women are being shared on Facebook with captions like “Maha Kumbh Ganga Snan Prayagraj”. Some of these posts contain the hashtags #mahakumbh2025, #gangasnan, and #prayagrajkumbh.

But not all videos which were shared with keywords related to the Maha Kumbh were from the festival. According to India Today, some of these clips were old and not from Prayagraj.

The report also mentioned that at least two Telegram channels were offering access to private groups with names such as “Ganga river open bathing group”, “Hidden bath videos group”, and “Open bath videos group”. These groups contain secretly filmed videos of women bathing and changing clothes.

Many of the videos and photos show women getting dressed or wrapped in towels. The price of these Telegram channels, offering these clips, ranges from Rs 1,999 to Rs 3,000.

Telemetrio, a Telegram search engine and analytics platform, has revealed a notable rise in the search term “open bathing” in India between February 12 to February 18.

UP police take action

The Uttar Pradesh police said Wednesday (February 19) that it has lodged cases against two social media accounts for allegedly posting and selling objectionable videos of women pilgrims bathing at the Maha Kumbh .

As per PTI, a case was filed against an Instagram account on February 17 for allegedly posting inappropriate videos of women pilgrims. The UP police said they have sought Instagram owner Meta’s help to identify the user operating the account to take appropriate action.

Another case was registered against a Telegram channel on February 19 for offering similar videos on sale. A probe is on in the case, the police said in a statement.

The police’s social media monitoring team found some platforms sharing videos of “women bathing and changing clothes at the Kumbh in clear violation of their privacy and dignity”, the UP police said in the statement, as per PTI.

The cases were registered at the Kotwali Kumbh Mela police station and legal proceedings are underway, it added.

The action is part of the police’s crackdown on misleading and offensive social media content related to the Maha Kumbh Mela, which began on January 13 and will conclude on February 26.

SP chief slams UP govt

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has criticised the UP government over the report. He said it was a “highly disgraceful and sensitive issue” and accused the government of failing to safeguard women’s dignity during the Maha Kumbh.

In a post on X, former Uttar Pradesh CM said, “The BJP government has failed to protect women’s honour during the Maha Kumbh. By earning GST from this online sale, is the government not complicit in this illicit trade? The Uttar Pradesh and National Women’s Commissions must take immediate action and ensure strict punishment for those responsible.”

With inputs from agencies