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FabIndia hidden camera case: 4 arrested accused granted bail

Trying on clothes at an outlet of a reputed garment brand at Candolim village near here, a vigilant Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani on Friday spotted a hidden camera positioned to record inside the small room, raising an alarm after which Goa Police registered a case against the staff for voyeurism.

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Four employees of a Fabindia outlet who were arrested on Friday evening in connection with the hidden camera incident were granted bail on Saturday afternoon. The top bosses at the ethnic lifestyle brand will be questioned by police on Saturday.

Trying on clothes at an outlet of a reputed garment brand at Candolim village near here, a vigilant Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani on Friday spotted a hidden camera positioned to record inside the small room, raising an alarm after which Goa Police registered a case against the staff for voyeurism.

Irani, on a visit to Goa, immediately protested, alerting her husband, businessman Zubin Irani, said Superintendent of Police (North) Umesh Gaonkar. Later, an FIR was filed against employees who were monitoring the cameras.

The employees, working at Fabindia-owned outlet at Candolim village near here - who were earlier detained for questioning - were put under arrest in the evening, Karthik Kashyap, SP of Goa Crime Branch,said.

They were booked under IPC Sections 354 C (voyeurism), 509 (intrusion into privacy) and also IT Act's 66E (capturing, publishing image of private area of any person without his/her consent). 

They were identified as Paresh Bhagat, Raju Payanche, Prashant Naik and Karim Lakhani.

In a statement, Fabindia said it is "deeply concerned and shocked at this allegation. We are in the process of investigating this internally and will be cooperating fully with the police". Bissell said there are security cameras in all the stores but they are not in trial rooms. "They cannot see what is happening inside the trial room," he said.

Bissel said his staff was not able to detect any of what Lobo had said of images inside the trial room and they have to be verified. "The cameras are routinely placed in places where shoplifting can occur".

"We do not have all the facts with us. Obviously any such incident creates anguish and tension. My top management will be in Goa soon. And my local staff has been fully cooperating with the police," he said.

Footage from the camera, installed four months ago according to staff at the store, was being recorded in a computer in the manager's office, Lobo said, confirming that it held many recordings of people changing in the trial room.

Calangute police, which searched the showroom after a complaint by Lobo, found a CCTV camera installed in the ventilation unit of the room.

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