Panaji : A Goa court on Thursday granted anticipatory bail until April 23 to Fabindia’s seven senior management officials, including its managing director and chief executive officer in the CCTV snooping case.
Those granted anticipatory bail by the additional district and sessions court in Goa’s Mapusa town are the company’s MD William Bissell, CEO Subrata Dutta, e-commerce chief Arun Naikar, marketing head Ramu Chandra, regional manager Ruchira Pujari and others including Kundan Gupta and Ashima Agarwal.
Four junior employees of Fabindia were arrested last week and released after a day for allegedly tweaking the CCTV lens to overlook a trial room in the company’s showroom, located in the upmarket coastal village of Candolim, where union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani was trying out clothes.
The four accused have been booked under Sections 354C (voyeurism), 509 (intrusion of privacy) and the IT Act’s Section 66E (capturing, publishing image of private area of any person without his/her consent) of the Indian Penal Code.
Chaitrali Sawant, the store manager, however, managed to secure anticipatory bail on April 7 and is being questioned by the officials of the Crime Branch which is investigating the case.
Fabindia has formally apologised to Smriti Irani after the incident, but has denied any wrong-doing on its part.