Alert Smriti spots ‘prying’ CCTV in fabindia trial room
5 April 2015 5:16 AM IST
Despite being several miles away from her party’s national executive meet in Bengaluru, as she has been dropped from the apex body, Union Minister for Human Resource Development Smriti Irani still managed to grab eyeballs as she complained to police that a CCTV camera in a fabindia’s outlet in Goa was focused on the trial room she used while trying out some clothes at the upmarket boutique chain at Candolim on Friday afternoon.
The CCTV camera was installed on a wall, against a foot-high ventilation gap on the side of the trial room cubicle. Smriti Irani immediately rushed out of the cubicle and, raising an alarm, informed her husband who confronted the staff and demanded that they show them the CCTV footage. On checking the footage, it was found that the the minister had been filmed in the changing room.
Her husband then informed Calangute BJP MLA Michael Lobo. Calangute police and Lobo immediately rushed to the boutique where PI Nilesh Rane recorded Irani’s statement. The minister soon left the store and went to her hotel in Baga where she is staying on a two-day private holiday.
“This is nonsense. This is happening all over. There are people who take videos of you like this when your body is exposed and then try to defame you,” Smriti Irani is reported to have said to MLA Lobo and the police.
On checking the CCTV footage, the police found that the camera had been taking videos of the women in the cubicle for the last four months. MLA Lobo lodged a complaint on behalf of the union minister with the Calangute police who have registered an offence under section 354 C IPC. The CCTV camera equipment has been confiscated by the police.
“It’s quite sad and bad. This is invasion of a person’s privacy,” Lobo said. fabindia staff said the CCTV cameras had been installed because there have been a number of thefts in the boutique by tourists.
The CCTV camera was installed on a wall, against a foot-high ventilation gap on the side of the trial room cubicle. Smriti Irani immediately rushed out of the cubicle and, raising an alarm, informed her husband who confronted the staff and demanded that they show them the CCTV footage. On checking the footage, it was found that the the minister had been filmed in the changing room.
Her husband then informed Calangute BJP MLA Michael Lobo. Calangute police and Lobo immediately rushed to the boutique where PI Nilesh Rane recorded Irani’s statement. The minister soon left the store and went to her hotel in Baga where she is staying on a two-day private holiday.
“This is nonsense. This is happening all over. There are people who take videos of you like this when your body is exposed and then try to defame you,” Smriti Irani is reported to have said to MLA Lobo and the police.
On checking the CCTV footage, the police found that the camera had been taking videos of the women in the cubicle for the last four months. MLA Lobo lodged a complaint on behalf of the union minister with the Calangute police who have registered an offence under section 354 C IPC. The CCTV camera equipment has been confiscated by the police.
“It’s quite sad and bad. This is invasion of a person’s privacy,” Lobo said. fabindia staff said the CCTV cameras had been installed because there have been a number of thefts in the boutique by tourists.
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