Voyeurism case: Goa court grants interim relief to MD, CEO, five other Fabindia officials

Goa police had arrested four employees of Fabindia outlet at Candolim village near Panaji.

By: Express Web Desk Written by Rashmi Rajput
New Delhi | Updated: April 9, 2015 03:45 PM IST

3 min read

A Goa court on Thursday granted interim relief to the Managing Director (MD), Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and five other employees of FabIndia in connection with a ‘voyeurism’ case registered by Union HRD minister Smriti Irani. The court granted interim relief while hearing their anticipatory bail applications. While granting the relief, the court directed the senior officials to be present before the Goa police on Friday for questioning.

Irani, who was on a two-day holiday with her family in Goa visited the FabIndia outlet in Candolim on April 3. While shopping at the outlet, the minister took a couple of garments to try them out. While trying the outfits, Irani spotted a camera, whose lens allegedly pointed inside the trial room, discomforting her. She immediately raised an alarm, alerting her husband, businessman Zubin Irani who had accompanied her to the store. The minister then called the local BJP MLA, Michael Lobo, who later on lodged a complaint at the Calangute police station on behalf of Irani. Following the complaint, the police arrested four FabIndia employee under sections 354 of the IPC and certain sections of the Information Technology Act, 1995. The accused were granted bail on April 4.

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“The court has granted interim relief until April 23 to the MD, CEO and five other employees of FabIndia and has told them to be present before the Goa police on Friday for questioning,” defence lawyer Raju Poulekar told The Indian Express.

On Tuesday, the Goa police recorded the statement of the store manager Chaitrali Sawant who was on leave when the incident took place. Sawant had procured an anticipatory bail from a local court on Monday.

Earlier this week they had sent the CCTV camera and the Digital Video Recorder ( DVR) to the central forensic sciences laboratory in Hyderabad for analysis.

The police is now probing which one of the four accused changed the direction of the CCTV camera. “According to the statement given by the representatives of the Bengaluru CCTV firm that installed the cameras inside the store, the direction of the lens was altered by 60 degree from its original position,” said an officer from the Goa police.

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