Peeping Toms a menace, especially in PG hostels

For six months, Kanakaraj, a resident of Sudhamanagar, terrorised residents of Shantinagar by peeping into their bedrooms and washrooms during the late hours.

Eventually, they installed CCTV cameras and started a WhatsApp group to share information. That led to his capture.

In August, a man watching a woman bathe was caught at MLA Layout on Bannerghatta Road.

Pradeep (32) was sent to Parappana Agrahara Central Jail following a complaint filed by the wife of a security guard. On noticing the man, she raised an alarm, and neighbours rushed to her aid.

However, for many, voyeurs remain faceless. Tanya (name changed) and her roommates had to deal with a man who would push open the windows of the bathroom while they were inside.

“Once, a girl screamed in the middle of the night when he opened the bathroom window. Her paying-guest accommodation had the locks changed. There wasn’t much that could be done to identify him. All we saw was a pair of eyes,” she says.

Nirbhaya case effect

Section 354 (C) related to voyeurism was added to the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, following the 2012 Nirbhaya case.

However, to ensure legal action, the victim must furnish evidence. “CCTV footage, camera recordings, photographs are accepted as proof. If you don’t think you can procure these, scream and gather crowds,” says advocate Geetha Mohan. The victim must immediately file a complaint, she advises.

Advocate Amith Nayak says that that is important to know what exactly counts as voyeurism.

“Someone staring at you in public doesn’t count. It is when you are watched in a circumstance where you expect privacy. For example, someone spying on you while using a public washroom,” he says. If proof is provided, the case will be taken very seriously, and the voyeur will not go unpunished. However, without evidence, such cases become weak, he says.

Police point of view

However, the police say regardless of whether the victim has proof, a complaint should be filed.

“Perversion can happen anywhere. I have observed that these instances occur largely in PGs, rentals and jam-packed areas, and one might not always be able to record the culprit,” says Rohini Katoch Sepat, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South). A case of voyeurism could arise under two circumstances; one, a person actually sees someone spying, and two, they suspect that they are being spied on.

“In cases of suspicion, preventive action can be taken. In the case that one actually sees someone recording them, a written statement is sufficient to start an investigation. The problem,
however, is that more often than not, the victim does not even know who the culprit is,” she says.

It’s sexual deviancy, says mental health expert

Dr Suresh Bada Math, a forensic psychiatrist with Nimhans, says voyeurism is a type of sexual deviancy.

“It is a kind of paraphilia. They get arousal, complete gratification mainly by observing and less with the actual sexual act. They are very well aware of what they are doing, they plan it, they seek pleasure by doing, they avoid detection and they know it is against law so their actions should be punished,” he explains.

Paraphilias are abnormal sexual behaviours or impulses characterised by intense sexual fantasies and the urge to gratify oneself with sexually deviant behaviour, he explains.

While he has never come across a patient seeking treatment for voyeurism, he says it can be treated with counselling and therapy. However, people having this problem refuse to acknowledge the problem and rarely seek help, he suggests.

Medications can be introduced, not to cure, but to reduce the voyeur’s sex drive. “However, for this, the person has to first come to the realisation and own up to having this problem,” he says.

Delhi worst affected

According to the City Crime Records Bureau, 42 cases were reported in 2017, 40 in 2018, and 33 this year till October.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau, Bengaluru (18) comes fourth after Delhi (41), Mumbai (28) and Kolkata (20). The statistics are from 2016. The bureau has not released numbers for subsequent years.

Overall, the numbers may seem negligible for a city of Bengaluru’s size, but that is because a majority of cases go unreported.

Who is a Peeping Tom?

It is a term used to refer to people who engage in acts of voyeurism. Derived from the French word ‘voir’, meaning ‘see’, it is used to describe the act of observing unsuspecting people, which results in sexual gratification. The person being watched could be naked, undressing, urinating, or engaged in sex. Often, the voyeur records these acts for later viewing.

Often referred to as ‘Peeping Tom’, a voyeur doesn’t initiate contact with whoever he is watching. The person being watched isn’t aware of being watched. More often than not, these instances occur in places where privacy is expected: bedrooms, bathrooms, hotel rooms and public toilets.

What Section 354 C says

The law against voyeurs and those who disseminate voyeuristic images provides for imprisonment of one to three years for the first offence. For a subsequent conviction, the jail term is three to seven years with a penalty.

Explanation: The section describes a private act as an act in a place “expected to provide privacy and where the victim’s genitals, posterior or breasts are exposed or covered only in underwear; or the victim is using a lavatory; or the victim is doing a sexual act that is not of a kind ordinarily done in public.”

Exception: The law also says, “Where the victim consents to the capture of the images or any act, but not to their dissemination to third persons and where such image or act is disseminated, such dissemination shall be considered an offence under this section.”