A week ago, ten women students from the Environmental Science Department of the Manasa Gangotri College in Mysuru began facing a harassment nightmare, as they began getting multiple calls from strangers asking them to have sex for money.

Shocked beyond belief, the women were unable to figure out how so many strangers had obtained their phone numbers.

When one of them finally asked her caller outright how he got her number, she found out that the man had obtained it from a website offering escort services named Locanto.

But none of the ten women initially knew that there were others in their department facing the same troubles.

However, on Tuesday, they realised that ten students in all had been subjected to the same situation.

What’s worse, the photos uploaded on the website were the same photographs that the women had submitted to the college at the time of admission.

On Tuesday evening, the women contacted the Chancellor of Mysuru University, Professor Rajanna, who directed them to file a police complaint.

“The girls have filed a collective complaint on Wednesday and we have registered a complaint under relevant sections of the Information Technology Act. The case will be transferred to the Cyber Crime Police, who will investigate the issue,” said a police official from the Jayalakshmipuram police station in Mysuru.

“It may be that someone got the information from the college database and uploaded the details on the escort service website. We also suspect that it may have been someone from the department itself as all the girls are from the same department and only certain officials have access to the student details,” the police official added.

Professor Rajanna told TNM that he would visit the college on Wednesday and initiate a departmental probe.

“I will inquire into the matter and after obtaining further details, I will file another complaint on behalf of the college, as these girls belong to Mysuru University. We have to safeguard our students,” Rajanna added.