CALANGUTE: Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Smriti Irani has complained to police that a CCTV camera in a Fabindia's outlet, 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. The incident occurred at 12.42 pm.

“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. Police were recording the statements of staff till late afternoon.

Fabindia staff said the CCTV cameras had been installed because there have been a number of thefts in the boutique by tourists. “They go inside the trial rooms with four items and come out with three items and take away an item by concealing it under their clothes. Just last week we caught a Russian tourist red-handed. When the items disappear the cost is deducted from the staff salaries,” a staffer said.

Besides North Goa BJP president Michael Lobo, BJP Mahila chief Kundan Chodankar, BJP vice-president Sadanand Tanavade , Sanquelim MLA Pramod Sawant and others marched to the Fabindia store after the minister complained.