Gujarat: Three held for selling videos of women patients; got clips through international hackers

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat police have arrested two persons from Maharashtra and one from Uttar Pradesh for allegedly acquiring hacked videos of women patients and selling the clips through YouTube and Telegram, an official said on Wednesday.

The accused took the help of international hackers to get the clips, police said.

The Ahmedabad police had registered a case on February 17 after videos of women patients being examined by doctors inside the labour room of a hospital were circulated online.

In the videos, which appeared to be from CCTV footage, women patients could be seen being examined inside a closed room of a hospital by a female doctor or being given injection by a nurse.

The police later ascertained that the videos were part of CCTV footage of a Rajkot-based hospital, Payal Maternity Home, said a release by the Ahmedabad cyber crime branch.

Some hackers breached the hospital’s CCTV system and acquired the footage. A few clips were subsequently shared by three YouTube channels, with the description carrying a link to a Telegram group. In that Telegram group, Rs 2,000 was sought per video, officials said.

The cyber cops identified and arrested three persons who were allegedly running this racket, the release said. They have been identified as Prajwal Taily and Praj Patil of Maharashtra’s Latur and Sangli, respectively, and Chandra Prakash of UP.

Police said the trio took the help of international hackers to acquire the videos and tried to sell the clips through social media platforms. The hackers had also provided similar videos of hospitals in other states as well as CCTV footage of various public places.

People with a “perverted mentality” pay to watch these videos, the release added.