Organisers of garment expo held for voyeurism

Mumbai: Two men, organisers of a garment exhibition held in Chinchpokli were arrested on Wednesday after a camera was found to have been mounted directly over the changing room at the exhibition venue

Mumbai: Two men, organisers of a garment exhibition held in Chinchpokli were arrested on Wednesday after a camera was found to have been mounted directly over the changing room at the exhibition venue.

Organisers of garment expo held for voyeurism

The Kalachowkie police officials said that an examination of the camera’s footage revealed that it had captured several women using the changing room.

The incident was reported to them by a 20-year-old girl on Tuesday after she spotted the camera while using the changing room.

“The exhibition, organised by Jaypal Jain (52) and Nilesh Dedia (51) of Usha Creations, started on Tuesday at the Velji Lakhamshi Nappu Hall in Chinchpokli and the complainant had gone shopping for clothes with her mother. After selecting some clothes, she asked the attendant for the changing room and was directed to a makeshift structure made with bamboo sticks and covered with large pieces of cloth from all sides. While trying on the clothes, she glanced upward and saw that the changing room was completely uncovered at the top and a CCTV mounted on the wall was pointed downwards, directly in the changing room,” said an officer.

The officer also added that the complainant first approached the organisers of the exhibition but they refused to entertain her concerns, after which she went to the police station.

“We sent a team to the venue and had the organisers show us the footage. We saw that several women had been captured on camera while using the changing room, and immediately seized the Digital Video Recorder (DVR),” the officer said.

The organisers claimed that the camera was already installed in the hall by its management before the exhibition began. However, when asked why the changing room was put up directly under the camera and why the room wasn’t covered from above, the organisers could not offer any satisfactory explanations, officers said.

The police then recorded a statement from the complainant and registered an FIR late on Tuesday night against Jaypal Jain (52) and Nilesh Dedia (51) of Usha creations. Both of them were booked under section 354 C (Voyeurism) under the Indian Penal Code.

“Both the accused were arrested on Wednesday and were subsequently released on bail. We are conducting further inquiries into the matter,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police Sanjay Patil, Zone IV.