FabIndia top bosses fail to appear before Goa police in hidden camera case

Fabindia's chief executive officer and managing director, who were summoned by the Goa police in connection with the voyeurism case, failed to appear before the investigating officer on Tuesday, even as the police summoned 11 employees of the outlet for questioning.

The voyeurism case was filed against the outlet's staff after Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani, who visited the Fabindia store at Candolim last week, alleged that it had a CCTV camera focusing at the trial room.

The Goa crime branch had summoned the company's Chief Executive Officer Subrata Dutta and Managing Director William Bissel to appear before it at 10 am on Tuesday.

"The company officials have failed to appear. Their lawyer has sought more time for them to appear. We will have to see what time is given to them. They had sent their representative yesterday (Monday) who was quizzed by the investigating officer," Inspector General of Police Sunil Garg said.

"They didn't come. We are waiting to study the order given by the district court while granting anticipatory bail to Fabindia's store manager," said lawyer Raju Paulekar, who is representing Fabindia.

The district court had on Monday granted anticipatory bail to store manager Chaitrali Sawant. Meanwhile, the police have summoned 11 employees of the outlet for quizzing on Tuesday.

"Eleven employees of Fabindia store have been summoned for quizzing today afternoon," Superintendent of Police (crime branch) Kartik Kashyap said.

Irani, who visited a Fabindia store at Candolim last week, had 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 the Indian Penal Code 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.

Fabindia also denied that it had placed hidden cameras in any of its stores. According to a statement issued by the company earlier, the camera in question at Candolim store was part of the surveillance system and was installed in the shopping area.

Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar had also come to the defence of Fabindia, saying the company cannot be blamed for the mischief played by some of its employees at its store.