Peeping Tom plants camera in clinic's changing room

28-year-old assistant had placed a camera in the box to record videos of women in the changing room of a Mulund diagnostic lab; when confronted, he threatened patients with sharp instruments and ran away

In the latest incident of voyeurism, a 28-year-old man working as an assistant at a pathology lab in Mulund for the past two years was found to have placed a camera phone in the changing room. When caught by angry patients and staff on Wednesday, Ansar Shaikh threatened them with a sharp instrument and managed to escape. Police have booked him on the charges of obscenity and sexual harassment.

Peeping Tom in the box: The clinic in Mulund was closed down after the incident came to light yesterday

The incident came to light around 8.30 pm on Wednesday, when a woman went into the changing room and spotted a suspicious looking cardboard box placed on a table, hidden behind a curtain. "The woman was suffering from chest pain and had gone to the Mulund clinic to get an X-ray done. Patients are required to change into a robe for the purpose, since normal clothing makes it difficult for the rays to pass through," said a Mulund police official.

After the X-ray, when she went back to change into her clothes, she spotted the box. "I saw there was a hole in the box. When I felt through it, I could feel a lens, sealed in plastic. I opened up the box and saw a mobile with its video camera on." The shocked woman came out and informed her husband, who went through the phone and came across a recording that showed a man covering the phone in plastic and placing it in a box. He realised that the man was the clinic assistant.

"As he started going through the videos on the phone, he saw a video showing the assistant placing the mobile in the plastic bag," the policeman said. Angry, he went to nab the voyeur, who picked up a sharp instrument and pointed it at the husband. "When he started attacking my husband, a nurse intervened, but both of them ended up bruised and the offender fled the spot," the woman said.

A police complaint was registered in the early hours of Thursday, and the absconding Shaikh was booked under section 292 (obscenity) and 509 (insulting a woman's modesty) of the Indian Penal Code. Police officials have seized the phone and have found several videos of women changing clothes. They will send it to the Forensic Science Laboratory in Kalina for further investigation. The clinic was closed down after the incident. u00a0