In the light of the recent promotion awarded to RK Pachauri, who is currently facing charges of sexually harassing a woman employee at TERI, another woman who was also subjected to sexual harassment by RK Pachauri while at TERI, has decided to break her silence.
Ever since the FIR against Pachauri came to light, she has been stating that she was also sexually harassed by Pachauri, and all her efforts to have her statement recorded have been obstructed by the police.
Also read: Exclusive: Cops Ignored Evidence, Two Other Pachauri Victims
She now feels it is time to break her silence and place the facts before the public, given that Pachauri is being rewarded by the TERI board, rather than being held accountable.
Here are the excerpts from an interview with her.
I learnt about the FIR against Mr RK Pachauri through news reports in the media.
This, of course, did not surprise me since I had been sexually harassed by him and had seen him behave extremely indecently with other women at TERI too.
However, what totally shocked me was when Mr. Pachauri claimed that his computer/laptop had been hacked, implying that it was not him who had harassed the complainant but that the charges against him were part of a ploy or conspiracy against him. This is when I decided to speak up immediately.
I contacted my counsel Vrinda Grover who met with the DCP Prem Nath on 26th February 2015.
Vrinda Grover sent a followup letter on 4 March 2015 to him and also a letter to the PoliceCommissioner on 7 April 2015. All this was done so that I could get my statement recorded.
However, till date I have not heard from the police.
Soon after I had joined TERI and began interacting with Mr RK Pachauri, he had renamed me with a sexually suggestive nickname “xxxx”.
He said that this was a derivative of my official name and suited me far better.
Mr RK Pachauri used to also call me on my personal mobile number once or twice a week during nonoffice hours and holidays to ask what I was doing, he would make personal inquiries about my availability and keep requesting me to join him for dinner or wine.
On several occasions Mr RK Pachauri would ask me intrusive questions about my personal life, about when my husband was going to be out of town, and how I spent my weekends.
He would pass comments about the clothes I was wearing, asking me whether my husband gave me a particular dress etc. He made constant attempts to meet me socially outside the office.
He would call me to his room on the pretext of discussing work, but often the conversation about work was very brief and then he would then make attempts to come close to my body or hold my hand. Once he requested me to be in his office at 8 am.
When Mr RK Pachauri saw my resignation letter, he threatened that from the airport to the city I was going to, he had friends everywhere and that he would see how I would leave his employment.
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