Shimla, Dec. 26: The girls say the cameras were hidden in jeans, slung “at an angle” in the bathrooms, to click them naked.

Police have arrested a male engineering student but the girls say two fellow girl students were also involved.

Naked headless photographs of some 170 girls of a Himachal engineering college and their hostel warden have driven the mercury up in this hill station amid allegations that the photographs were sold to porn sites.

Shimla police said they had arrested Abhishek Dhiman, a second-year student of the MG Institute of Engineering and Technology, Badu, Mandi, 150km from the Himachal capital, for hacking the email account of a girl.

“We have recovered three laptops which contain headless nude female photos,” Mandi DSP Narender Kumar said. “The laptops are being sent for forensic examination.”

The scandal came to light on December 20 when Neha Punia, a student of the private college, filed a complaint in Gohar (Mandi) police station that Abhishek had hacked her email. She also said Abhishek had warned her against revealing his name to college authorities.

The case took a turn two days later when dozens of hostel girls went to the police station alleging that Abhishek, Neha and another girl, Neha Gupta, were all involved and had clicked them nude to create obscene MMS clips.

The girls told the police they used to see a pair of jeans hanging in the bathrooms and said the cameras might have been hidden in the pockets.

“Neha Punia and Neha Gupta put cameras in the pockets of the trousers hanging in the bathrooms. The trousers were hung at an angle to capture the video of the students taking bath,” the girls said. “Then they put the nude pictures on the laptops.”

The police arrested Abhishek on December 22 and registered a case against him for hacking Neha Punia’s account and threatening her. Sources said preliminary interrogation of Abhishek had revealed he hacked the account and downloaded the photographs.

The cops also questioned both Neha Punia and Neha Gupta, though no case has been registered against them because of lack of evidence.

Police sources said Neha Punia was Abhishek’s girlfriend, while Neha Punia and Neha Gupta were classmates.

DSP Kumar said Abhishek had been remanded in police custody till December 27. But no MMS had been found so far, he added.

College officials were not available for comment, but sources said Abhishek and the two girls had been suspended and the campus closed temporarily.

Police sources said a forensic test would reveal if the headless pictures found in the laptops of Abhishek, Neha Punia and Neha Gupta were of their classmates or had been downloaded from the Net.