For Karnataka Home Minister, filming of girl student in restroom is small incident

Bengaluru: Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara on Wednesday dubbed the filming of a girl student in the restroom by fellow female students in a Udupi college as "a small incident blown out of proportion".

According to him, it has happened in the past but "no one did politics then" but now the BJP has indulged in "petty politics".

“That is a small incident. Reports say it happened amongst friends. Should it be blown out of proportion and given a political colour,” Parameshwara asked while speaking to reporters.

He was reacting to an incident in which three girls allegedly videographed their classmate, who is from another community, at a paramedical college last Wednesday in the coastal district headquarters town of Udupi.

Police have filed an FIR against the three girl students. The accused girls were suspended from the college the very next day of the incident.

If a criminal activity has taken place beyond it and if a complaint has been given then it will come under the jurisdiction of the police department, the minister said. However, there is neither complaint "nor anything else," he added.

Hitting out at the BJP, he said they should stop blowing up these "small issues" simply for political reasons. They should keep in mind that there should be peace in society.

“Weren’t these things happening in the past? Weren’t these things happening in the past in colleges and universities? No one did politics then, why are they doing it now? There are many other works but they (BJP) never speak on them. They did not speak about drought, floods. BJP is doing petty politics. They should have other works. Now it appears that they don’t have any other work,” Parameshwara said.

Former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai slammed the home minister for "taking it lightly".

“If that was a small case, then why an FIR was registered and what about the confessional letter by the accused girls? Why were those girls suspended? He (Parameshwara) should answer these questions,” Bommai told reporters here.

The BJP leader alleged that the college administration tried to hush up the case. If the student had not tweeted, no one would have known about it.

“How many cases will you (government) cover up? How many girls’ modesty would have been at stake with these videos? Such forces should be punished severely. Police should function independently without succumbing to any pressure," Bommai said, demanding that "the officers who are at fault in the case should be punished."

He said making videos of girls in a restroom is a "heinous and condemnable act".

However, police going to the residence of the girl who brought out the incident to the fore, in a manner to investigate her antecedents, shows under what compulsion they are functioning, Bommai claimed.

He alleged that the police were not functioning as per law and it was becoming clear that they were succumbing to the pressure of those in power.

“Police should seize the phone and recover the videos. Will the college administration suspend the girls without any reason? Why did the girls give a confessional letter? Police give statements as if nothing happened in the college. The confessional letter itself is sufficient to register a case against them,” Bommai said.

"Police going to the residence of the girl and giving a statement that she has not given any complaint. If that becomes a parameter, ‘certain forces’ will be emboldened to resort to all kinds of illegalities and violence believing that anything can be done here. Police will lose its trust among people", Bommai charged.