Sept. 5: Police arrested a 57-year-old man in Salt Lake yesterday on the charge of photographing women students of a fashion designing institute without their consent.

Hundreds of such photographs were found stored in Barun Chatterjee's smartphone, police said.

Chatterjee - booked under Section 354 of the IPC (assaulting or using criminal force to a woman with the intention of outraging her modesty) - was released on bail today.

An officer of Bidhannagar South police station said some students of the institute had been keeping tabs on him.

Students have alleged that he used to park his Hyundai Getz in front of the college every afternoon and photograph students without their consent. At nights he used to park his car outside the women's hostel near the GD bus terminus and photograph the students, they alleged.

Students and institute guards confronted Chatterjee yesterday afternoon, after which the authorities alerted the police.

The police arrested him on the basis of the institute director's complaint.

Chatterjee, a resident of CIT Road, runs a manufacturing unit that produces hair clips, the police officer said.

He apparently told cops that he photographed the students because he was fond of photography.

"Mobile phones are getting smaller by the day... even an average phone can produce high-resolution images," an officer of the Bidhannagar commissionerate said.

If a person is caught taking photographs of people without their knowledge or consent, even in public places, the matter can be reported to the police, the officer said.

But penal action depends on various factors. "Action can be taken in case of explicit photographs clearly breaching a person's privacy. An accused can be booked for voyeurism."

In case there's nothing objectionable in the photograph and the accused can explain why he/she took it, the police can make an exception, the officer said.

Students of the institute complained about men from Beleghata and Sukantanagar flocking near the institute.

"They often speed down the road on bikes while pillion passengers take our photographs on mobile phones," a student claimed. "They can morph the pictures and post them on social media. It is scary."