BENGALURU: A woman security guard employed by a private security agency working for Bengaluru Metro has recently filed a sexual harassment case at the Subramanya Nagar police station against a senior security official of the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL).
The FIR also names the owner of her agency as second accused for allegedly instructing her to tolerate and cooperate with such misbehaviour.
The 34-year-old woman, a resident of Dasarahalli, is a former employee of Wisdom Agency which is one of the agencies that takes care of security aspects of Metro stations on the Purple Line.
The FIR on March 15 has been filed under Sections 354A (sexual harassment involving physical contact, making sexually coloured remarks etc) and 504 (intentionally insults another person), 506 (criminal intimidation) 509 (word gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of women) and 34 (joint culpability for an act) of the IPC.
The misbehaviour meted out to her is said to have taken place between August 1 and October 31 of 2023. The FIR also records another woman security guard as an eyewitness to the incidents.
The complaint speaks of highly derogatory words and sexually coloured remarks used by the BMRCL Assistant Security Officer to her while she was posted at Rajaji Nagar Metro station. It also mentions that the officer often used to keep describing her body in public and touching her inappropriately.
Her complaint to the owner of the city-based Wisdom Agency did not help. The woman further charged the owner of asking her to co-operate and tolerate such behaviour and expressing his inability to enter into any issue with BMRCL as the concern had a major contract with it.
Asked about the issue, BMRCL sources back the officer completely. A source claimed, "As part of routine shuffling, the woman was posted to a different Metro station on the Purple Line along with 13 other security staffers. BMRCL had asked the agency to relocate security staff. Only she and another security guard named in the FIR refused to work at the new station. They want to be retained at the previous station only."
He added that BMRCL had given her two months to join her new station. "She refused to do so and was finally terminated. In her disgruntlement and frustration, she had filed such a case against both individuals," another source said.
Police investigations are on.