CCTV snooping: Fabindia MD, CEO appear before Goa Police

Panaji, April 10: After a delay of several days, Fabindia's managing director William Bissell and CEO Subrata Dutta along with eight senior officials finally appeared before the Goa Police Crime Branch in connection with the trial room CCTV snooping case.

"We are questioning them about the CCTV protocol followed by the company to try fix responsibility for what happened," a Crime Branch official said.

Bissell, Dutta and others were summoned by police on earlier occasions but they repeatedly sought time. All the officials have secured anticipatory bail from a local trial court.

Four junior employees of Fabindia were arrested last week and released after a day for allegedly tweaking the CCTV lens to overlook a trial room in the company's showroom in the upmarket coastal village of Candolim where Union Human Resources Development Minister Smriti Irani was trying out clothes on April 3.

The four have been booked under sections 354C (voyeurism), 509 (intrusion of privacy) and IT Act's section 66E (capturing, publishing image of private area of any person without his/her consent) of the Indian Penal Code.

Chaitrali Sawant, the store manager, however, secured anticipatory bail on April 7 and is being questioned by officials of the Crime Branch which is investigating the case.

Fabindia has formally apologised to Irani after the incident but has denied any wrongdoing on its part.

IANS