NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police on Tuesday filed a chargesheet against TERI (The Energy Research Institute) executive vice chairman R K Pachauri for allegedly sexually harassing and ‘outraging the modesty’ of a former woman colleague. The chargesheet was filed almost a year after the FIR was first filed in the case.
The Delhi Police has filed a chargesheet that runs into more than 1400 pages. In the chargesheet, the 75-year-old Pachauri has been accused of stalking and criminally intimidating the victim with gestures or actions intended to ‘insult her modesty’.
Metropolitan Magistrate, Shivani Chauhan, has fixed the matter for consideration on April 23. The Investigating officer in the case, Pratibha Sharma, said that the investigation was based on the SMSes and e-mails exchanged between Pachauri, the accused, and the woman colleague.
According to the chargesheet, the complaint of the former TERI employee was thoroughly examined and statements of witnesses, many of whom are present and former employees of the organisation, as well as friends of the victim were recorded.
The chargesheet has named 23 persons, including friends, present and former employees of TERI, as prosecution witnesses. Investigators have also relied on the statement of the victim before the police and magistrate.
The Delhi Police has filed charges under Sections 354 (assault/criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354 A (sexual harassment), 354 D (stalking), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC, against Pachauri.
On February 13, last year an FIR was registered against Pachauri and he was granted anticipatory bail in the case on March 21, 2015. However, soon after the FIR was registered, on February 24 last year, he stepped down from his position as chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC). Meanwhile, Pachuari was barred by the courts from entering TERI headquarters in Gurgaon till November 21 last year, when the victim resigned.
Pachauri, who is still out on bail, has denied the charges even as another woman has levelled similar allegations in the last month. The Delhi Police said that an out-of-court settlement had been proposed to the woman.
Since the FIR against him was registered last year, Pachauri has been allowed, at least nine times, to travel abroad, including to the USA, UK, China, Japan, France, Kazakhstan, Bolivia, Kuwait, Somalia and Saudi Arabia.