In a chilling reminder of the growing digital abuse targeting women, a deeply disturbing case has emerged from Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh, where a Muslim youth was caught allegedly filming a Hindu woman while she was bathing. The incident, which occurred in the Gautam Nagar locality under Azad Chowk Police Station, has triggered widespread outrage, particularly after the accused and his brothers violently assaulted the woman’s family with stones and knives when confronted.
The accused has been identified as Sheikh Jafar, also known as Jholtu, a repeat offender in the area. He is accused of secretly capturing obscene visuals of the woman to store or distribute them. The shocking act took place on June 25, and a First Information Report (FIR No. 166/2025) was promptly registered at the Azad Chowk police station.
Hidden Camera, Flashlight, and a Disturbing Pattern
The victim, Khushboo Soni, a housewife, recounted the harrowing experience in her complaint. Around 2:00 PM on June 25, she was bathing when she noticed the light from a mobile phone through a ventilation gap. “I felt someone was recording me. I had noticed this light two or three times before too, but today it was clear,” she stated. Realising something was amiss, she screamed for help.
Her husband and sons immediately rushed in and spotted Sheikh Zafar trying to flee through the backside of the house into the Raja Bada ground, situated behind their residence. They gave chase, but what followed was brutal and calculated.
Savage Assault by Zafar and His Brothers
As the woman’s family attempted to apprehend Zafar, he began abusing them with vulgar language, threatened to kill them, and attacked them using a stone and a large knife. The situation worsened when his brothers Rehan and Kalam joined in. All three reportedly abused the woman’s family using obscene references to their mother and sister, a detail explicitly mentioned in the FIR.
“My son Swayam’s shoulder was broken, and Mayank suffered a head injury. Zafar kept yelling that he would kill them while swinging a long knife,” Khushboo Soni’s complaint reads.
The violence only stopped after local residents rushed to the scene. Alarmed by the brutality, they helped transport the injured to safety and immediately contacted the police.
A History of Criminal Activity
Locals claim that Zafar is a known troublemaker in the area. According to Khushboo and several residents of Gautam Nagar, Zafar has multiple criminal cases pending at Azad Chowk and Purani Basti police stations, mostly related to assault, abuse, and threats. “He is a habitual offender,” her letter to the police states. “After coming out of jail, he resumed harassing and threatening people.”
In a shocking revelation, the complaint also states that earlier this year, Zafar had allegedly kicked and broken an idol of Ganesh ji that was installed by the Hindu community during a local festival. “This act had hurt the religious sentiments of the entire locality,” said a resident who wished to remain anonymous.
FIR Details and Legal Action
Based on Khushboo Soni’s detailed written complaint, the police registered FIR No. 166/2025 and booked Zafar, Rehan, and Kalam under the following sections:
Sections 25 and 27 of the Arms Act, 1959 (relating to illegal possession and use of weapons),
Section 115(2), 296, 3(5), and 351(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), relating to intent to commit a crime, religious disruption, organised criminal act, and assault with intent to outrage modesty, respectively.
The police have launched a full-scale investigation and are currently interrogating the accused to ascertain whether Zafar had previously recorded other women, and if so, how and where the footage was shared. Authorities are also probing the possibility of a larger network, especially in light of similar past cases.
Udupi Tape Case Connection Raises Alarms
The Raipur incident has sparked comparisons with the infamous August 2023 Udupi washroom scandal in Karnataka, where three Muslim girls, Alimatul Shaifa, Shabanaz, and Aliya, were caught filming a Hindu classmate inside a college washroom. That case had led to widespread political outrage and debates on privacy, digital exploitation, and communal trust in educational spaces.
Investigations into the Udupi case had revealed that the footage was allegedly shared in WhatsApp groups where adult Muslim men were part of the chain, raising suspicions about the exploitation of Hindu girls. Though the cases are geographically and structurally different, a similar pattern of perversion and communal targeting is visible in the Raipur case as well.
Public Outrage and Demands for Justice
Following the incident, Hindu organisations and local residents staged a protest outside the Azad Chowk police station, demanding the harshest punishment for the accused. “This is not just a crime against one woman or one family. It is an attack on our collective dignity,” said a local VHP leader.
A memorandum was submitted to senior police officials calling for:
Fast-track prosecution of the accused,
Digital forensic audit of Zafar’s phone and cloud storage,
CCTV footage verification in the area,
Protection to the victim’s family from retaliatory attacks,
Public disclosure of Zafar’s criminal history.
The case has been transferred to a senior-level investigation team, and police sources confirm that digital forensics experts have already seized Zafar’s mobile phone for examination.
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