Fabindia top bosses to be grilled in voyeurism case in Goa

The Goa police will quiz two top officials of ethnic lifestyle retailer Fabindia on Tuesday in connection with the voyeurism case filed against the outlet's staff after Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani alleged that the store had a CCTV camera focusing at the trial room.

The state crime branch has issued summons to Fabindia's Chief Executive Officer Subrata Dutta and Managing Director William Bissell asking them to remain present for the investigation.

"Both of them have informed us that they will remain present before the investigating officer tomorrow (Tuesday)," Superintendent of Police Kartik Kashyap told PTI today.

Amidst the controversy, Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar said 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 said.

Parsekar said, “Smritiji was a 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.”

He said Goa is safe for all women tourists and this is an isolated incident.

Asked if changing rooms of all garment shops would be inspected across Goa, Parsekar said it is up to the police to decide on that.

“I have not issued any directions to check the changing rooms. If police do that then there might be allegations of extortion,” he added.

Irani, who visited a Fabindia store at Candolim last week, alleged that it had a CCTV camera focusing at the trial room.

The Goa police had on Sunday 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.

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 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.