A Total Wireless employee has been arrested and charged with a felony after allegedly transferring explicit photos from a customer’s phone to his own while assisting her with network settings.
The accused, 29-year-old Raghul Anandakrishnan, faces a state-jail felony charge of invasive visual recording. The incident occurred on June 7, as detailed in court documents.
According to the affidavit, police were summoned to the Total Wireless store located in the Capital Plaza shopping center shortly after 3 p.m. A woman reported that Anandakrishnan had accessed her phone without her consent and sent her intimate photos to himself.
Upon arrival, officers found Anandakrishnan leaving the store. He explained that the customer had entered the store to modify her iPhone’s network settings and provided him with her passcode for access. He claimed that while navigating her phone, he inadvertently opened her photo gallery and then attempted to send two nude images to himself via AirDrop, although he asserted that the transfer did not succeed. He acknowledged that he was only authorized to adjust her network settings and had no permission to view or send her photos.
The customer recounted that after giving Anandakrishnan her passcode, he took her phone to the back of the store. Once she returned to her car, she discovered that he had sent two of her personal images to his device and had also accessed her Snapchat account, adding himself as a friend. She firmly stated to the police that she did not authorize him to access her images or social media, and she expressed her intent to file charges.
In addition to the felony charge, Anandakrishnan faces a Class B misdemeanor for a computer security breach, as the iOS Photos application is classified as part of a computer system, functioning as an image management and database system within the phone’s operating system.
As of Tuesday evening, Anandakrishnan remains in the Travis County Jail on a total bond of $10,000. He is also under orders to refrain from any contact with the victim and to maintain a distance from her. A court date for the case has yet to be scheduled.
