NOIDA: A 35-year-old man, working as the assistant vice-president at Genpact, committed suicide after two women in his organisation made allegations of sexual harassment against him, police said on Thursday.
Hailing from Kerala’s Ernakulam, Swaroop Raj, had joined the multinational company (MNC) in 2007. Swaroop was promoted to the post of assistant vice-president in September this year. He got married to Kriti Srivastav, who is also a Genpact employee, in 2017. After two women alleged that Swaroop had sexually harassed them, he was temporarily suspended from the firm and the case was being investigated by Genpact’s Internal Complaints Committee (ICC).
His lifeless body was found hanging from a ceiling fan in his house in Sector 137 on Tuesday after he got the suspension letter. “His wife made the PCR called late in the night,” SHO of Surajpur police station Manish Chauhan said.
Chauhan said Swaroop’s brother on Thursday lodged a first information report (FIR), alleging that the seniors in the company were responsible for his demise and sought investigation. “They have held ICC committee members and the two accusers responsible for his death,” said the Station House Officer.
The police have recovered a suicide note from the victim’s possession in which he expressed embarrassment that the news would spread and he would be looked down upon. He also wrote that the allegations made by female colleagues against him were “baseless”.
In the note addressing his wife Kriti Srivastav, he said: “Today I want to let you know how much I love you. I have an allegation by two of the employees on sexual harassment and trust me I did not do anything. I know the world will understand it but you and our families should trust me. The allegations are baseless. But the entire Genpact will know about it, hence I do not have the courage to face anyone. I want you to be strong and live life with whole respect as your husband has not done anything... I am going as everyone will look at me with that eye even if I come clean.”
Firm’s statement
We want to emphasise that the complaint made serious allegations of sexual harassment, which were to be duly investigated by the ICC.