Ahmedabad Crime Branch officials said the accused hacked more than 50,000 CCTV footage; the videos were uploaded to Telegram and a YouTube channel
(From left) The three arrested accused—Parit Dhameliya, Ryan Pereira and Vaibhav Bandu
The Ahmedabad Crime Branch of Gujarat Police have arrested two people from Mumbai and another individual from Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh for allegedly uploading and selling obscene videos on Telegram. Officials said that the accused persons hacked more than 50,000 CCTV camera feeds from Prayagraj, including those from hospitals, schools, colleges, corporate offices, and bedrooms, and sold the footage on Telegram with help from friends.
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The main accused, a 25-year-old Bachelor of Management Studies (BMS) student, has been identified as Ryan Pereira, a resident of the Vasai area. During the investigation, the officials discovered that the accused had categorised the videos into different groups, including those from Ganga River open baths, parlors, labor rooms, X-ray rooms, bedrooms, colleges, schools and corporate offices, etc.
According to Crime Branch officials, over the last nine months, the accused managed to gain access to more than 50,000 CCTV cameras and sold the footage on Telegram as premium content. The three accused identified by the officials are Pereira, Parit Dhameliya, a resident of Surat who holds a B Com degree, and Vaibhav Bandu, a resident of Sangli in Maharashtra—a B Tech in Computer Science.
Police arrested Pereira from Vasai and Bandu from Sangli while Dhameliya was held from Prayagraj Seven others have also been detained. “Pereira and Bandu added friends and met another accused, Dhameliya, on Telegram. Dhameliya purchased three different hacking software programmes from other countries, and offered the other two the opportunity to hack videos and make money in lakhs,” said a crime branch official.
The matter came to light on February 19 after a live video of a woman being examined in a hospital in Rajkot was hacked and uploaded to a YouTube channel. The video went viral, and the hospital filed a complaint with Ahmedabad Cyber Police, following which the cyber team quickly traced the source of the video and found out that it was uploaded from Vasai. Police managed to track down Pereira and arrested him.
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