Four staff members of the Fabindia-owned outlet at the upmarket boutique chain at Candolim near here, who were earlier detained, were arrested by Goa police following a complaint by BJP MLA Michael Lobo who was called by Irani after the incident. The HRD Minister along with her businessman husband Zubin Irani are on a private visit to Goa.
She then called Lobo, who lodged an First Information Report (FIR). Fabindia is a Rs 1,000-crore homegrown lifestyle brand better known for ethnic wear.
Gaonkar said objectionable images were seen from the recordings of the hidden camera that was seized by police.
The arrested men were identified by the police as Paresh Bhagat, Raju Payanche, Prashant Naik and Karim Lakhani. They were booked under IPC Sections 354 C (voyeurism), 509 (intrusion into privacy) and also IT Act's Section 66E (capturing, publishing image of private area of any person without his/her consent).
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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, adding that it held many recordings of people changing in the trial room.
"When we went through the hard disk and computer to check the recordings we saw everything. All things were getting recorded over there when anybody was changing clothes. From the level of stomach till above everything was getting recorded," he said, adding, "This is mischief... Somebody has been watching the recording."
Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, who is in Bangalore for the BJP National Executive meet, said stringent action will be taken against the guilty persons.
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.