Smriti Irani 'voyeurism' case: Goa Police summons Fabindia CEO, MD

Panji, April 7: The Goa police on Tuesday summoned 11 people including Fabindia's managing director and CEO in connection with the voyeurism case.

This was done after Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani filed case against the outlet's staff alleging that the store had a CCTV camera focusing at the trial room.

According to latest report, the CEO and MD have asked more time as they failed to appear before the investigating officers.

After the complaint of the Minister, four employees were arrested and booked under various IPC sections last week, but they were later released on bail.

Earlier, on Monday the Goa Police said all the persons involved in the voyeurism case, registered following the complaint by Irani, would be brought to book and "other victims" too would be called for recording their statements.

Goa CM defended Fabindia on Monday

Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar defended the store. He said that the company cannot be blamed for the mischief played by some employees at its store, where Union Minister Smriti Irani spotted a camera facing the trial room.

"Fabindia is supposed to be a reputed company. I personally feel that it must not be the company's fault but mischief played by its staff members. Some womanisers must have done that," Parsekar told reporters.

Parsekar further said, "Smritiji was VIP and because of that cognisance has been promptly taken. We will see that such things don't occur again. It is a lesson for everybody."

What had happened?

Irani, who visited a Fabindia store at Candolim last week, alleged that it had a CCTV camera focusing at the trial room.
Subsequently, four employees of the store -- Paresh Bhagat, Raju Payanche, Prashant Naik and Karim Lakhani -- were arrested and booked under IPC sections 354C (voyeurism), 509 (intrusion into privacy) and IT Act's section 66E (capturing, publishing image of private area of any person without his/her consent).

However, they were later granted bail by a local court which said that police had made out no grounds for custodial interrogation.
Fabindia has also denied that it had placed hidden cameras in any of its stores. According to a statement issued by Fabindia earlier, the camera in question at Candolim store was part of the surveillance system and was installed in the shopping area.

OneIndia News

(With inputs from PTI)