Jagatsinghpur: Police on Sunday arrested a suspended junior revenue assistant for allegedly installing a hidden spy camera inside the women’s washroom at the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) office in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district.
The accused, identified as Sanjay Adhela, reportedly acted out of malice after a female colleague rejected his one-sided romantic advances. “Preliminary revealed that he was sexually perverted. With this mindset, he had installed the spy camera in the women’s toilet after watching instructional videos on YouTubeYouTube. He bought the miniature camera online from Amazon. We have also come across an one-sided love affair angle but it needs further investigation,” Jagatsinghpur SP Ankit Verma told a presser.
The incident came to light on May 25 when a woman employee noticed the camera after it accidentally detached and fell to the washroom floor. She immediately alerted senior management. The following day, Additional Executive Officer Girija Shankar Mallik lodged a formal complaint at the Tirtol police station, leading to the registration of a case under sections 76, 75, 79, 61(2), 354 and 3(5) of the BNS, along with sections 66(E), 67 and 67(A) of the IT Act.
“We received a complaint on May 2
5-26. The DRDA formed an internal probe committee to probe the incident, and parallelly lodged a police complaint. The cyber cell was roped in and multiple police teams were formed. Surveillance footage from the DRDA office exposed Adhela’s frequent, suspicious movements near the ladies’ restroom. In a desperate bid, he initially begged officials for leniency and later attempted to bribe the technician tasked with retrieving the office CCTV hard drive, which confirmed his involvement in the case,” the SP said.
Police found a mobile application on Adhela’s phone used to stream and download footage remotely. “We also found an Amazon invoice confirming that he had purchased the spy camera on January 1, 2026. Following which, he was arrested and forwarded to court,” Verma said.
The SP further informed that Adhela had been working in the DRDA office as a junior revenue assistant for the past 2-3 years. He is native of Nuagaon under Abhaychandpur police limits. He reportedly confessed during interrogation that he installed it in the women’s washroom in March. He would periodically remove the device to recharge it before reinstalling it in the same spot, continuing the voyeuristic activity for months. The spy camera, his mobile phone, a pen drive, and a CCTV hard disk have been seized for forensic examination to determine the extent of any recordings and whether footage was stored or shared.
Ironically, the accused had lodged the complaint at Tirtol police station in connection with the incident. “Since he had an image of a good employee and everyone trusted him, the office had sent him to file the complaint,” he added.
Further investigation is underway to ascertain if the footage was circulated and to evaluate the full scope of the breach. The episode has triggered widespread outrage and renewed calls for stronger safeguards to protect women in government workplaces.