TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: A Fabindia staffer has been allegedly caught on video changing the position of the CCTV camera fitted at its Candolim outlet, soon after a furore erupted over a camera filming women customers in the changing room. This has given Crime Branch direct evidence into the infamous voyeurism scandal, sources say.
Sources told Herald that one of the four bailed out employees was caught on another CCTV camera shifting the angle of the CCTV that overlooked the trial room where women clients tried on clothes.
“After Irani (Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani) spotted the camera and raised an alarm, the employee hastily tried to change the position of that CCTV. His entire act was caught on another CCTV camera in the same store,” a Crime Branch officer said. The Crime Branch has already seized the hard disk that contains video footage recorded through the CCTV cameras installed in the store.
“It was this reason that we added Section 201 (destruction of evidence) after registering FIR under different sections of IPC and IT Act,” the officer added.
Fabindia had initially denied the allegation, demanding an apology from the Human Resources Development Minister.
Goa Police nonetheless continued their investigation and Crime Branch sleuths arrested four persons who were subsequently bailed out after Mapusa court observed that the investigation officer made no grounds for their custodial interrogation.
Thereafter, store manager Chaitali Sawant was granted anticipatory but during the course of interrogation in the Crime Branch office at Ribandar, she was arrested and bailed out within hours this week.
Sawant has told the investigation team that Regional Managers in Bangalore and IT officials in Delhi had direct access to videos being captured from the trial room. The Crime Branch has attached her mobile phone for the investigations.
Meanwhile, company CEO Subrata Dutta, who was grilled for several hours on Friday, said they would do everything to regain confidence of the HRD minister so that she continues shopping at its stores.
“We have reputed people who are our customers. But I definitely hope that we will be able to re-instill the confidence in her so that she keeps visiting our stores. We will do everything to make sure that it happens,” Dutta told reporters, after his deposition.
Dutta along with Managing Director William Bissel and four others were also grilled till 5pm on Friday. All seven were granted anticipatory bail by the Mapusa additional sessions court on Thursday with a condition to appear before Crime Branch sleuths from 10 am to 5pm on Friday.
Claiming the company is cooperating with the investigation, the CEO further said, “The entire incident has left us in a state of shock, but we are a strong company. These are moments of introspection for us. In such times we think what we can do to make our company from better to best. That is what our action plan will be.”
The company has already begun an internal inquiry into the entire episode with Dutta assuring that action will be taken against the guilty.
Bissel said that high-ranking officials in the company do not monitor the CCTV camera footage and also they do not check the stores’ outline plan or camera positioning at each store.
His statement, to a certain extent supported Sawant’s statement before the Crime Branch that regional heads have the responsibility to check positions before giving final clearance.
