Virat Kohli privacy breach: Hotel apologises for incident, takes action against perpetrators

T20 World Cup 2022: Team India star Virat Kohli on Monday shared a strongly-worded Instagram post informing of a privacy breach at his hotel room in Perth, Australia. Kohli and the Indian contingent were in Perth to play against South Africa on Sunday in a T20 World Cup 2022 match.

Sharing a leaked video that surfaced online showing his personal space without permission, Kohli expressed his anger at the privacy breach, adding that the incident had left him “paranoid about his privacy”

The hotel, Crown Perth, has now apologised to Kohli for the incident and taken action against the individuals involved, local media in Australia reported.

The hotel chain said that it was aware of the incident, confirming that the video was recorded by a contractor on duty at its hotel where Team India were staying in Perth. 

“We unreservedly apologise to the guest involved and will continue to take the necessary steps to ensure this remains an isolated incident,” a spokeswoman for the company was quoted as saying by The Age.

“We have zero tolerance for this behaviour, and it falls well below the standards we set for our team members and contractors. Crown has taken immediate steps to rectify the issue. The individuals involved have been stood down and removed from the Crown account,” the spokesperson added. 

The hotel is also conducting an investigation and assured it would take “any further steps necessary” to ensure such privacy breach incidents don’t take place again.

The apology comes after two individuals were seen in a video footage inside Kohli’s hotel room, filming his personal belongings. The video was captioned “King Kohli’s Hotel Room”.

Sharing it on social media, Kohli wrote, “I understand that fans get very happy and excited seeing their favourite players and get excited to meet them and I’ve always appreciated that. But this video here is appalling and it’s made me feel very paranoid about my privacy. If I cannot have privacy in my own hotel room, then where can I really expect any personal space at all?? I’m NOT okay with this kind of fanaticism and absolute invasion of privacy. Please respect people’s privacy and not treat them as a commodity for entertainment.”

READ | Virat’s dropped catch, Rohit’s missed runout: Bhuvneshwar Kumar indicates reason behind poor fielding vs SA