Smriti Irani spots CCTV directed at changing room

Police are probing staffers of Fab India, a niche clothing boutique in a Goa village, for allegedly installing a CCTV that overlooks the store's changing room in which central minister Smriti Irani was trying out clothes on Friday, a police official said.

Police Inspector Nilesh Rane told IANS that Smriti Irani had visited the boutique in the north coastal village of Calangute, 20 km north of Panaji, and was trying out clothes when one of her assistants noticed the camera and raised a hue and cry.

A First Information Report has been filed under sections 354 and 509 of IPC, Rane said.

"The minister was in the store when one of her assistants informed her about the camera which was installed outside the changing room, but seemed to have a view of inside," Rane said.

He said the camera lens was aimed through the ventilator of the changing room of the Fab India store.

While Irani could not be contacted, BJP's Calangute legislator Michael Lobo, who was on the spot, said the ruling BJP-led alliance government was taking the matter seriously.

"I along with the police are scanning the store's hard disk right now. The camera is in a very mischievous place and there is footage of women changing clothes for the past three to four months," Lobo said.

The Congress, meanwhile, claimed that the 'changing room scandal' was Goa's best kept secret, especially in tourism-oriented coastal villages.

"Not just this boutique. All stores with such a facility must be investigated. A union minister can at least alert the authorities but most people cannot," Congress spokesperson Durgadas Kamat said.