It
took guts for Rashmi Sinha (name changed) to register a complaint at
the Tangra police station in Kolkata against a shop assistant for
taking her pictures from beneath the trial room door. The shop
assistant, Sunil Kumar Jha, was eventually arrested.
Last year, two
MMS clips made the rounds of mobile phones: one was of a girl changing
inside the trial room of a renowned Kolkata departmental store and the
other showed a girl and a boy of the same department store making love
inside a trial room.
Complaints of hidden cameras in lingerie stores
are common. A school teacher shopping in Kolkata’s New Market spotted
one when she was looking for a hook to hang her clothes: “The lamp was
missing but there was a small camera.” She did not raise an alarm but
never entered the store again.
Though the Constitution has included
the right to convict a person committing such a crime, there is no
specific law under which he can be punished. “The punishment depends on
the gravity of the offence, which depends on the evidence,” said
Vaidehi Limaye, a student of cyber laws at Government Law College. A
case can be filed under Section 509 of Indian Penal Code subject to
fulfilling some conditions.
Not everyone takes up such incidents
with the police. Take the recent incident in Mumbai when an HT
correspondent ran into a woman who had caught an assistant in a
prominent sports apparel store taking pictures of her in the trial
room. The woman chose not to file a police complaint. Her father told
Hindustan Times that they did not want “legal hassles” and would leave
it to the media to take up the issue. Even though the Hindustan Times
report led to the shop assistant’s arrest, the management has not even
taken steps to post women attendants outside the changing room.
Despite
electronic gadgets taking voyeurism to new dimensions, the Information
Technology Act under which most of the cases are registered has serious
lacunae.
The famous Pune cases, which sparked a debate about the
need for amendments to the IT act to cover voyeurism, have yet to
produce results in court. In the first case, the manager of a swimming
pool at Sahakar Nagar and a peon were arrested on September 12, 2003,
for installing a web camera in the changing room. Two years later,
Mohan Kulkarni, a landlord from the Navi Peth area, was arrested for
using a camera to spy on his women tenants.
On their part, store
managements claim their trial rooms are safe. Big Bazaar says the
controls for their electronic gadgets are in the managers’ cabin, which
remains locked in their absence.
The Wills Lifestyle management said
their trial rooms have large doors with wooden slats, which means the
customer has an outside view but no one can look inside. Following the
Hindustan Times report, stores in Mumbai have become vigilant.
Kapsons owner Vipin Kapoor said they have posted guards outside changing rooms.
But
there are some who would rather be safe than sorry. Kolkata’s actress
and model June Malliah never uses trial rooms: “Mirrors in trial rooms
are tricky because someone can see you from the other side.”
took guts for Rashmi Sinha (name changed) to register a complaint at
the Tangra police station in Kolkata against a shop assistant for
taking her pictures from beneath the trial room door. The shop
assistant, Sunil Kumar Jha, was eventually arrested.
Last year, two
MMS clips made the rounds of mobile phones: one was of a girl changing
inside the trial room of a renowned Kolkata departmental store and the
other showed a girl and a boy of the same department store making love
inside a trial room.
Complaints of hidden cameras in lingerie stores
are common. A school teacher shopping in Kolkata’s New Market spotted
one when she was looking for a hook to hang her clothes: “The lamp was
missing but there was a small camera.” She did not raise an alarm but
never entered the store again.
Though the Constitution has included
the right to convict a person committing such a crime, there is no
specific law under which he can be punished. “The punishment depends on
the gravity of the offence, which depends on the evidence,” said
Vaidehi Limaye, a student of cyber laws at Government Law College. A
case can be filed under Section 509 of Indian Penal Code subject to
fulfilling some conditions.
Not everyone takes up such incidents
with the police. Take the recent incident in Mumbai when an HT
correspondent ran into a woman who had caught an assistant in a
prominent sports apparel store taking pictures of her in the trial
room. The woman chose not to file a police complaint. Her father told
Hindustan Times that they did not want “legal hassles” and would leave
it to the media to take up the issue. Even though the Hindustan Times
report led to the shop assistant’s arrest, the management has not even
taken steps to post women attendants outside the changing room.
Despite
electronic gadgets taking voyeurism to new dimensions, the Information
Technology Act under which most of the cases are registered has serious
lacunae.
The famous Pune cases, which sparked a debate about the
need for amendments to the IT act to cover voyeurism, have yet to
produce results in court. In the first case, the manager of a swimming
pool at Sahakar Nagar and a peon were arrested on September 12, 2003,
for installing a web camera in the changing room. Two years later,
Mohan Kulkarni, a landlord from the Navi Peth area, was arrested for
using a camera to spy on his women tenants.
On their part, store
managements claim their trial rooms are safe. Big Bazaar says the
controls for their electronic gadgets are in the managers’ cabin, which
remains locked in their absence.
The Wills Lifestyle management said
their trial rooms have large doors with wooden slats, which means the
customer has an outside view but no one can look inside. Following the
Hindustan Times report, stores in Mumbai have become vigilant.
Kapsons owner Vipin Kapoor said they have posted guards outside changing rooms.
But
there are some who would rather be safe than sorry. Kolkata’s actress
and model June Malliah never uses trial rooms: “Mirrors in trial rooms
are tricky because someone can see you from the other side.”
