BANGLADESH

Persona beauty parlour says it has removed closed-circuit cameras from the service rooms of all its branches following a High Court order.

"Cameras at all the branches have been removed around 5pm [on Monday] after the court order," Persona's senior executive Nigar Sultana told  Monday night.

Asked if the cameras have indeed been removed as Nigar claimed, the beauty parlour's chief, Kaniz Almas Khan, in a text message to said, 'Yes.'

A bench of justices Farid Ahmed and Sheikh Hassan Arif ordered the government on Monday to take out all such cameras following a writ petition filed earlier in the day by Bangladesh Human Rights Foundation chief executive Elina Khan.

The writ was filed after a doctor, who went to the parlour's Banani branch on Sept 30 for a spa, found a closed-circuit camera in her dressing room after she used it.

The woman made a verbal complaint with police and the media for filming her.

Earlier on Oct 1, Kaniz had told bdnews24.com that the cameras were there for security reasons and she did not think they were violating anyone's privacy.

Raging debates ensued on social networking sites such as Facebook over camera use in beauty parlours on security excuse.

A committee, headed by Gulshan zone additional deputy commissioner of police Nizamul Haque Mollah, is investigating the incident.

Persona has eight branches in Dhaka -- six for women and two for men -- and one in Chittagong.

In Monday's rule, the High Court also asked the government to explain why it would not be directed to formulate a policy for CC camera installation in beauty parlours.

Earlier, five lawyers of Dhaka judges' court served a legal notice on Kaniz over the incident.