Maharani Women's College hostel trauma ends, pervert arrested by B'luru cops

Bengaluru: The High Grounds police on Wednesday arrested the man who had entered the Maharani Women’s College Hostel wearing women’s undergarments and stealing them from the laundry section.

The 37-year-old Abu Taleem is from Kishanganj district in Bihar. He worked as a stable hand at the Bangalore Turf Club and stayed in a shed on the Turf Club premises, from where he was picked up by the police on Wednesday.

The police said that they identified Taleem from the footage recorded in the hostel CCTV camera. “We suspected that the accused could be an employee of the Turf Club as he entered the hostel by jumping over the wall from the club side. We rounded up around 50 people. The hostel security guard and warden, who had seen him, picked out the culprit from among the suspects,” the police said.

Suspect Abu Taleem is seen wearing women’s underwear in a CCTV grab from the premises of the Maharani Women’s College Hostel in Bengaluru — via Web

They also recovered two pairs of undergarments from his shed. During the interrogation, Abu reportedly told the police that he was fascinated by women's clothes and had developed an intimacy with transgenders.

He also told the police that he snuck into the hostel regularly over the last five years. "We are trying to find proof of his earlier entry," the police said.

During the interrogation, Abu initially refused to take the blame, saying he was afflicted with sleepwalking and was not aware of his own activities in that state. “He might be suffering from some mental illness. We will look into it,” the police said.

Police ignored complaint earlier
The complaint of a man loitering around half-naked on the hostel premises was filed by hostel warden Sumitra Devi in September 2016, but the police did not take it up seriously. The police said that they were busy enforcing law and order at that time as the Cauvery water sharing issue had erupted.

The case got momentum only after members of the House Committee on Preventing Sexual Assault against Women and Children, headed by MLC V.S. Ugrappa, visited the hostel and went through the CCTV footage that showed the man walking around the hostel campus in women's underwear.