Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) authority on Sunday formed a probe committee after a woman alleged she was taped on a closed circuit television (CCTV) camera while taking service at Persona, a beauty parlour in the city's Gulshan.
Additional Deputy Commissioner Nizamul Haque is the chief of the three-member committee with assistant commissioners Mizanur Rahman and Nurul Alam. Deputy Commissioner Lutful Kabir of Gulshan zone of DMP said the committee was asked to submit its report, on whether there was any such footage, with recommendations within three days of its formation.
A sub-inspector of police was also suspended on Sunday for handing over a computer's hard disk, allegedly containing the footage, to the woman's husband after he recovered it from Persona.
The suspended sub-inspector is Mehedi Hasan of Gulshan Police Station, said Lutful, adding that they recovered the hard disk from the husband. He, however, denied commenting on whether there was any footage of the woman. Detectives, since Sunday, began investigating whether there was any such footage. The steps were taken following mounting tension among customers of Persona. The woman, who is a doctor residing in Gulshan, noticed the camera on Friday as she was leaving a room in Persona after taking service. She informed her husband, who reached the spot with police.
The husband then took away the hard disk in presence of police, said Persona sources. >Meanwhile, several customers of Persona expressed their concern, saying that if they were secretly taped on hidden CCTV cameras and the footage leaked out, it would destroy their privacy. An air hostess of a private airlines said, “I, along with my two sisters who are university students, used to go to Persona in Dhanmondi regularly. We are now passing our time in fear of whether our footage were captured or not.” However, Kaniz Almas, owner of Persona, said, “A misunderstanding took the situation to this level. “She (the customer) suspected a CCTV camera was taking her footage but it was not true as the camera was used for the space in front of the room in which she took service.”
The space, containing a counter, was used by Persona's executives to sit and by the customers to keep their bags. The camera did not cover the remaining part of the room, she said.
The husband took the hard disk, watched the footage and informed over phone that nothing objectionable was found. Police also found nothing objectionable, she added. However, the husband could not be reached over cellphone despite repeated attempts. In a joint statement last night, Kaniz and the husband said the incident on Friday was a result of an unexpected misunderstanding. They claimed that the issue was settled on the spot immediately and since both the authority of Persona and the husband were satisfied, they brought no allegation against each other.
Expressing embarrassment, the authority stated that a day after the incident, some media quoted the Persona authority in their reports though they actually made no contact.
The Persona authority also claimed that some media deliberately ran such reports only to tarnish the reputation of Persona.
Source: The Daily Star
0 comments:
Post a Comment