2 MP students ‘Zoom-bombed’ online college exam, played obscene video; arrested

BHOPAL: A college student and his cousin in Madhya Pradesh have been arrested on charges that they ‘Zoom-bombed’ an online college examination and shared their obscene videos to force authorities to cancel the exam, police said on Thursday.Zoom bombing is the practice of uninvited users hijacking Zoom video calls with durbing or dracting content including some form of nudity.Madhya Pradesh cyber cell, additional superintendent of police (Addl SP) Vaibhav Shrivastava said the two, Aniket Singh, 22, and his cousin Aditya Singh, have been arrested under sections 294 (obscene acts and songs), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of IPC apart from provisions of the IT Act.Aniket is enrolled in a Bachelor of Business Adminration programme at the college. His cousin is preparing for the medical entrance exam NEET. Shrivastava said the incident took place on June 3 when the college teachers were holding an online examination. Suddenly, everyone noticed that an obscene video of two boys standing on a roof.“The online exam had to be cancelled. Later, the principal and other female teachers of the college started receiving obscene messages on their WhatsApp,” he said.This wasn’t the first time that the college’s online classes were zoom bombed. There had been instances when someone would play porn videos to disrupt the online classes since February but the teachers took a lenient view.On June 3, the teachers decided that they have had enough and along with the principal, filed a complaint with MP’s cyber cell, Shrivastava said.Additional director general of police, cyber cell Yogesh Deshmukh said the students were connecting to the Internet via a pre-paid SIM card so it was difficult to trace them. Then, officers started analysing the background of the videos where they exposed themselves and were able to track them down. One particular shot on the roof helped police officers identify the area.A pair of slippers seen in the nude videos was also seized from them.

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She is a senior reporter based at Bhopal. She covers higher education, social issues, youth affairs, woman and child development related issues, sports and business & industries.
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