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CHENNAI: A project officer in the aerospace engineering department of IIT-Madras has been arrested for filming a woman student while she was using the washroom on Tuesday.

Police identified the man as Subham Banerjee and said he had joined IIT-M last year and was pursuing PhD in the same department.

The woman, who is doing her PhD in Karnataka, had come to do resarch at IIT-M. On Tuesday afternoon, she had gone to the washroom located near the aerospace engineering department's lab. She sensed something amiss and when she looked around she noticed a camera in a hole in the wall. When she tried to take a closer look, someone on the other side of the wall moved it away.

The woman immediately rushed to the other side and caught hold of him, but he pleaded innocence. She seized his phone to check but found nothing. The woman informed her friends, who alerted the police.

Kotturpuram police said the man had confessed to the crime, though he did not have any videos or photographs on his phone. Police have sent the phone to the forensic lab to retrieve vidoes and photos that he may have deleted. They have registered cases under section IPC 354 (outraging the modesty of a woman) and are investigating.

"We are awaiting results from the lab to find out if he had filmed other women too," said an investigating officer. Police may impose cases under the IT Act against Banerjee.

