Safety, privacy are top priorities: Tata firm after staff held for voyeurism

Tata Electronics prioritizes employee safety after a woman was arrested for placing a camera in a bathroom at their hostel in Tamil Nadu.

Tata Electronics Private Limited (TEPL) on Thursday said that its employees’ safety and privacy were priority following the arrest of a woman employee and her friend from Karnataka on charges of installing a camera in the company hostel’s bathroom. An inquiry identified 22 year old Neelu Kumari from Odisha as the suspect whom the Tamil Nadu police arrested late on Tuesday night. “When we learnt of an incident involving one of our employees in our residential facility in Hosur, we took immediate action and reported the matter to the police,” a spokesperson for Tata Electronics said.

The woman employee was living in the same hostel managed by the company near Hosur in Tamil Nadu’s Krishnagiri district and before her arrest, her colleagues living there went on a massive protest on Tuesday. (Representational Photo)

A woman employee first found the camera inside the bathroom this week and informed her friends. “The camera seems to have been planted on November 2,” a police officer said. Tata said that they have policies in place to support employees.

The woman employee was living in the same hostel managed by the company near Hosur in Tamil Nadu’s Krishnagiri district and before her arrest, her colleagues living there went on a massive protest on Tuesday. Police personnel, district administration and some of the women workers’ families came to the hostel in Kelamangalam village as the striking employees demanded strict action against their colleague who placed the camera.

“At Tata Electronics, the safety, privacy, and well-being of our employees is our topmost priority,” the spokesperson said. “We are addressing this incident with utmost seriousness and care. We have policies in place to provide all the necessary support to our employees in our effort towards providing a safe and supportive workplace for all.”

The arrested woman worker confessed placing the camera to the police and added that she did not do it on her own accord. “She said that she was coerced by a male friend working in Bengaluru to do so,” the officer said. Her friend Santhosh (25) was held by the Uddanapalli police from Bengaluru on Wednesday, said Tamil Nadu police.

The camera has been recovered and police found that no footage from that has been sent yet.