Fabindia snoopgate: Inspection not to end in Goa alone

Panaji, Apr 6: With a hidden camera spotted in a trial room of a garment store in Candolim, Goa, sources say that all the state governments have asked police to conduct assiduous inspection in all major malls and apparel stores.

This was after Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani raised spotted a mischievously positioned camera at an outlet of a leading garment store that was pointed towards the trial room, she used while trying out some clothes that led to a case of voyeurism being filed and arrest of four employees.

[Fabindia apologises to Irani, but denies installing spycams]

Other states too conduct inspection in malls

Terming such an incident, a blot on the society, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav asked police to conduct thorough inspection in all shopping malls.

He also said the police station in-charge of the area will be considered responsible for preventing such incidents and strict action will be taken in such cases. [Police stn in-charge responsible for hidden cameras: Akhilesh Yadav]

Police also directed store owners to remove or re-position 45 such cameras found near trial rooms. Uttar Pradesh is home to many popular shopping malls.

Chattisgarh police ADG Rajiv Shrivastava has asked to police superintendents to make thorough scan in all toilets, trial rooms of all malls in the state.

Fabindia's store in Maharashtra under scanner

In yet another trial room snooping case, a worker of Fabindia store in Kolhapur in Maharashtra was arrested for allegedly filming a woman customer using his mobile phone.

The incident, which took place on Tuesday, March 31 in the premium ethnic clothing brand's outlet in Tarabai Park area in southern Maharashtra.

Scandal takes a different turn

After the hullabaloo, the incident lost steam and went into a convenient coma on Sunday.

Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, who expressed shock at the incident and launched a high level probe into the incident, made a complete u-turn and said " Before Smriti ji, there are images of women of who used the room, but not whole. Seems like it was not intentional, probably unintentional," Parsekar told reporters. [Voyeurism case could malign Goa's image]

He termed the incident as "very unfortunate" and said it could malign the image of Goa, which is otherwise considered safe for women. "Please do not give a wrong impression about Goa. Women are safe in our state," he said.

OneIndia News