PANJIM: Four employees of Fabindia’s Candolim store were granted conditional bail on Saturday, in the case where Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani found a hidden camera focused on the trial room, where she and other women tried on clothes.
The Judicial Magistrate First Class, Mapusa, dismissed the police remand application filed by the Crime Branch, which is investigating the case against Paresh Bhagat (26), Raju Payanache (24), Prashant Naik (20) and Karim Lakhani (24).
Fabindia’s CEO Subrata Datta, MD William Bissel and Regional Manager have sought time to appear before the Crime Branch and reasoned that they failed to appear for questioning because they required time to travel to Goa.
“They have sought time and would probably remain present on Monday,” Crime Branch SP Karthik Kashyap told Herald. Crime Branch had summoned the trio to question them in connection with the case.
The store manager, in whose room the recordings were being stored, is absconding and has applied for anticipatory bail.
During the arguments in the packed court room, defence lawyer Raju Poulekar told the court that the CCTV camera was fitted unintentionally and that no image has been circulated while pointing out that there was no reason for the Goa police to hand over the case to Crime Branch.
Assistant Public Prosecutor Nita Marathe told the court that the investigation in this case is in preliminary stage, alleging that the accused had positioned the camera in such a manner intentionally and knowingly to view the women engaged in a private act, while changing their clothes in the trial room.
“All the accused persons involved in the crime have positioned the cameras in the vantage point without the woman knowing that she is being watched,” Marathe said, seeking police remand.
The Crime Branch plea to the court said that during the investigation, the captured images were viewed by the accused. “Custodial interrogation of the accused is required to know as to whether those images have been disseminated via email, Whatsapp, Facebook or any other means of communication,” the plea by Investigating Officer Siddhant Shirodkar read.
The application also said that most of the accused are presently at large and only the custodial interrogation would reveal the names of those involved in the sensitive crime against women. “The custodial interrogation is required to find out whether the captured images of different women in their private act have been viewed by other accused via internet or any other internal connections via server, etc,” reads the Crime Branch submission adding that statement of more victims will be recorded by tracing them.
“The investigation of this case is in preliminary stage, more evidence is required to be collected as this case involves innocent women whose modesty has been insulted.”
The Crime Branch also alleged that the accused tried to destroy the evidence by shifting the position of camera and as such, they have slapped section 201 of the Indian Penal Code against the employees.
On hearing the arguments, the magistrate observed that there were no grounds made by investigating officer for custodial interrogation or arrest of the accused. While granting them bail, she said that the application seeking remand was not maintainable.
Meanwhile, Irani had told the police that she spotted the hidden camera and soon alerted her husband Zubin, who later called up Calangute MLA Michael Lobo. While the Calangute police were immediately summoned to register an FIR, Zubin had already started verifying the video footage to ensure it was not misused.
However, the other women, who tried clothes on, before the minister used the room, told the Crime Branch they were clueless about the CCTV camera until the expose by the minister.
Later in the evening, the Crime Branch sleuths along with forensic experts had once again reached the store at Candolim to collect related-evidence.
The Crime Branch sleuths also checked Fabindia’s outlet at Campal where CCTV camera was installed near the trial room, however, on checking the footages, it was found that cameras faced the clothes stand.
Meanwhile, IGP Sunil Garg said, “We have taken the issue seriously and are concerned about the safety and security of women. We are taking pro-active steps to ensure there is no intrusion of privacy, and women are safe. We have now asked respective beat staff to check that stores have not installed CCTV cameras inappropriately. We will also call store managers to sensitize them on the issue and if such cases come up still, we will take strict action against them.”
