A 22-year-old trainee executive with a health insurance company committed suicide here on Thursday night allegedly due to sexual harassment by her team leader.
The team leader who had allegedly been making sexual advances towards the woman for the past few months had kissed her forcibly in the office elevator on Thursday evening. Humiliated by the assault, the victim told her brother about it over the phone, went home and hanged herself from the ceiling fan of her bedroom.
The incident came to light on Friday after the victim’s parents lodged a complaint with the Malkajgiri police.
The victim, Srilatha of Saraswathinagar, Anandbagh Colony in Malkajgiri, completed her MBA and joined the Apollo health insurance company at its Prakashnagar office in Begumpet four months ago. Her team leader Vijay Raghava alias Vijay had allegedly been making advances at her for three months before the Thursday evening assault in a running lift.
Police registered a case against Vijay under sections 354 (assault or criminal force towards woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 306 (abetment of suicide).
Malkajgiri ACP P Radhakrishna Rao told Express that the victim’s brother Mahesh Reddy went to her office after getting a phone call from her and reportedly beaten up Vijay.
The victim’s father Srisailam Reddy, a businessman, said, “Srilatha had brought the issue (harassment by Vijay) to my notice earlier but we thought it was some work pressure and took it lightly.” It was her grandmother who noticed the victim hanging from the ceiling fan and informed the other family members. They rushed her to a private hospital where the doctors declared her brought dead.