The Ahmedabad Police’s Cyber Crime Branch has arrested three persons from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh for allegedly selling videos of female patients being treated in the check-up room of a private maternity hospital in Rajkot. They allegedly sold the footage to individuals with “perverted interests” through various YouTube channels and Telegram groups for ₹2,000 per video via QR code payments, said officials.
The accused were in touch with overseas hackers in Romania and Atlanta (in US). They had hacked the CCTV of a maternity hospital in Rajkot and uploaded videos using Telegram and YouTube channels. They took one-time payment using UPI for transactions.
As per our initial investigation Police suspect that they have hacked CCTV footage of malls, commercial shops and hospitals in other parts of the country as well.
Prima facie they did not find any involvement of the hospital in the scandal. The police have written to the health department seeking their views on whether CCTVs were permitted in the treatment room of a maternity hospital.
Those arrested include the mastermind, identified as Prajwal Ashok Taili (24) from Latur, who operated a YouTube channel and managed the Telegram group, said officials. His accomplices, Praj Rajendra Jadhav (29) from Sangli handled group registration and bank accounts, while Chandraprakash Fulchand (32) from Prayagraj ran another YouTube channel.
The case emerged on February 17 when videos showing female patients receiving medical treatment in a maternity home were uploaded on YouTube. The Cyber Crime Branch’s social media monitoring cell filed an FIR under the Information Technology Act sections 66(E) (privacy breach) and 67 (obscene material publication).
Two technical teams analysed CCTV footage and social media activity, tracing it to a Rajkot maternity home. Upon further scrutiny, the investigators identified that the videos had been uploaded from accounts linked to individuals outside Gujarat. The investigation led to teams being deployed to Latur and Sangli in Maharashtra and Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, resulting in the arrests.