In the Udupi bathroom video case, a shocking revelation has been made by the students of the college. In an interview with TV9 Kannada, a student from the same college said that the Muslim women who were making videos of Hindu girls have been doing this for over a year months and have also shared the videos with Muslim boys.
In the video, the student of the college tells TV9 Kannada, “This incident was happening for the past 1 year. Post capturing in mobile the Muslim girls were exchanging the Mobile with their Muslim Male friends who were waiting in a car outside the college. The exchange of mobile was happening in the afternoon lunch hour. This was highlighted to the college management but they did not take any kind of action. It was on the 18th that the victim went to management and complained, but management did not take it seriously. We got to know on the 20th and immediately we sat on protest. About the viral thing, the mobiles were being exchanged by the 3 Muslim girls with Muslim guys who were coming from Ucchila. They were coming on Pulsar bikes and Cars. The 3 Muslim Girls were Shafa, Alfiya, Shabnaz”.
The student further said, “In our College Management, our Administrator is Mr Abdul Khader. He saw these 3 Muslim girls Shafa, Alfiya, and Shabnaz standing and came to us and said, “I have given a beautiful action to the 3 Muslim girls, I have asked them to write 5 times that they will not repeat this”.
The student further says, “He said that the 3 Muslim girls did that as a joke and that we should not take it seriously. What we like to ask is, if someone does the same thing of keeping a mobile phone in his house restroom and shoots his family’s women, will he say the same thing that he will let them off by giving a homework? This happened 6 months earlier also but management closed it without any enquiry. The videos were being shared with Muslim men from Ucchila”.
The student essentially made several revelations in her interview with the news channel. Firstly, she said that this has been happening for over a year and that the videos were shared by Muslim Girls with Muslim men. She further talks about how the administrator allegedly trivialised the issue when it happened earlier by telling Hindu girls that he had punished the Muslim girls by asking them to write they won’t repeat this mistake again multiple times.
The student also says that the administrator, whose name is Abdul Khader, asked the Hindu girls to not take it seriously since the Muslim girls were filming them in the washroom as a “prank”.
The student has essentially said exactly what the Police in the Congress-ruled state and the media have been harping on the downplay this crime. The police had come on record to say that they had investigated the case and found that there was no criminal intent behind the actions of the Muslim girls. They had also said that there was no communal angle to the case and that they were certain that the videos were not shared by the Muslim Girls to any Muslim men.
In fact, this trope by the police and the administration of the college was then used by elements like AltNews’ Mohammad Zubair and TheNewsMinute to downplay the case and whitewash the crime. They had harped on the fact that the police had said the videos were not shared with Muslim men and anyone claiming so, despite media reports, was spreading fake news.
Based on this trope, an FIR had been filed against human rights activist Rashmi Samant after the dog-whistling by AltNews’ Mohammad Zubair as well.
The Udupi bathroom video case
On 21st July, a Karnataka-based organisation, All College Student Power (ACSP), wrote the Superintendent of Police, district Udupi, about this crime at Netra Jyoti College where three female students of the Muslim community secretly made a video of Hindu female students and shared the mobile phone. As per the letter sent by ACSP, students at Netra Jyoti College learned about it on the 20th of July and protested against it.
The college took up the matter, and three students responsible for recording the videos were suspended effective immediately, pending internal investigation. Though the victim(s) did not wish to file an official complaint in the matter, the college went ahead and informed the police keeping in mind the sensitivity of the matter.
After social media outrage, the police filed an FIR against the 3 Muslim women who were indulging in the criminal activity and the college administration for not only destroying evidence but also for not providing information and documents during the course of the investigation.
