The owner of a Women’s hostel in Adambakkam has been arrested after it was found that he had installed nine hidden cameras in the rooms, including the bathrooms.

The accused, Sampath Raj alias Sanjay (48), hails from Trichy and lived with his wife and two children at Hastinapuram. He had taken the building on Thillai Ganga Nagar First Street, Adambakkam, for rent in October and turned it into a Women’s hostel, which was occupied by six IT professionals and a professor of a college.

The man was arrested on Tuesday by the Chennai police after they received a complaint from the tenants after one of them accidentally found a hidden camera in a socket where she had tried plugging in her hair dryer. When she confronted Sampath Raj about it, he had apparently threatened to upload her nude videos on Facebook. That was when she lodged a complaint with the Adambakkam police.

The investigating officers found eight more cameras hidden in plug sockets, lamp bulbs, wrist watches, and one on the hanger inside the wardrobe. The tenants also added that Sampath would visit the hostel every now and then on the pretext of checking the rooms.

He was arrested soon after and was booked under sections of the IT act. More details will be revealed after further investigation, said one of the officers.