Now, Kolhapur Fabindia staffer held for filming woman

Spelling further trouble for Fabindia Overseas Pvt. Ltd, a staffer at its Kolhapur outlet was arrested for secretly filming a woman customer on his cellphone, police said here on Saturday.

Despite repeated attempts by IANS, Fabindia officials refused to comment on the matter on Saturday.

The incident occurred on March 31 at the Tarabai Park outlet here when a salesman Prakash A. Ispurle was caught snooping on a woman customer.

The following day, the woman lodged a police complaint against Ispurle who was arrested and taken into police custody, a police official told mediapersons said.

The woman in her complaint alleged when she was trying some clothes, Ispurle put his mobilephone in recording mode and slipped it in the gap between the trial room floor and the door, the official added.

She raised an alarm after which Ispurle hurriedly pulled the phone back, rushed to a corner and attempted to delete the recording.

However, the police nailed him on the basis of CCTV footage of the store which showed Ispurle in the act of filming the customer.

The incident came into focus after union minister Smriti Irani spotted an installed camera overlooking the women's trial room at a Fabindia outlet in Candolim, Goa, on Friday.

The minister had gone there for shopping with her husband Zubin Irani. She later lodged a police complaint after which four staffers were arrested but enlarged on bail on Saturday.

Earlier on Saturday, Fabindia tendered an apology to Irani for the incident but denied that there were hidden cameras anywhere in the storey, including the trial rooms.

Fabindia assured that its staff and store manager were fully cooperating with the police in its investigations.

The company has also appointed its own three-member women team to probe the incident and urged that if any mischief had been perpetrated by anybody, such a person should be punished as per the law.

Referring to the Friday incident and the Calangute police's (Goa) action vide an F.I.R. filed against the company, Fabindia said it was women-centric organisation with 70 percent women comprising its workforce.

"Fabindia and its products are loved by women across the country and the globe. We highly value the dignity of women and stand for it. Customer is supreme for us," it said.