KOLKATA: Senior IAS officer and former Chief Secretary of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Jitendra Narain is at the epicentre of a sexual allegation in which 20 women were allegedly taken to his Port Blair residence in a jobs-for-sex racket. Some of the allegedly sexually exploited women were provided with government jobs.
The allegations came into the open after a 21-year-old woman alleged that the former Chief Secretary Narain and the then Labour commissioner of Andaman and Nicobar Islands RL Rishi sexually exploited her and she was subjected to gang-rape.
Jitendra Narain's name was among the 'Top 50 Bureaucrats' list prepared by Fame India, Asia Post, and PSU Watch, in 2019.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) was constituted to probe the young woman's allegations that she was lured to the chief secretary's home with the promise of a government job and then raped by top officials there.
The Calcutta High Court on Thursday directed Jitendra Narain, a 1990 batch IAS officer, to appear before the SIT by October 28, holding that the case requires immediate inquiry.
A vacation bench comprising justices Bibek Chaudhuri and Prasenjit Biswas also granted interim protection against arrest to Narain till a date that will be fixed by the circuit bench of the Calcutta High Court in Port Blair on November 14 on its first date of sitting after the Puja vacation.
The woman’s family has reportedly said they would move the Supreme Court for cancellation of the former Chief Secretary’s interim bail.
The woman had alleged that she was introduced to Labour Commissioner Rishi through a known person and was taken to the residence of the then Chief Secretary Narain.
In her complaint, she alleged that she was offered alcohol at Narain's residence and when she declined it, she was forcibly raped and sexually assaulted by the Chief Secretary and the Labour Commissioner.
According to an Indian Express (IE) investigation, the young woman said that the sexual assault was repeated two weeks later and that she was threatened to not disclose the crime to anyone.
IE reported that the Call Data Records (CDRs) of the two bureaucrats and that of the 21-year-old matched with the time of sexual assault as stated by the woman, as told by senior police officials. The tower location of the woman and two senior officers also matched her allegations, the cops said.
The hard disk of the digital video recorder of the CCTV camera at the Chief Secretary's residence was erased and later removed from his residence after he was transferred from Port Blair to New Delhi in July this year, IE reported.
In a testimony from a member of the Chief Secretary's staff, as reported by IE, he said that he used to be instructed to "pick the women up", and then pick up food from a local restaurant to ber served later at the residence, and would then be asked to drop the women off at a fixed spot.
The complainant had filed an application before the Aberdeen Police Station in Port Blair on September 30, on the basis of which the FIR was lodged.
On October 17, Narain was suspended by the Union Home Ministry.
His accomplice, the former Labour Commissioner of the Andaman and Nicobar administration, has also been placed under suspension.
Narain had written to the Union Home Ministry and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands claiming that a conspiracy was being hatched against him and that he has “specific materials which demonstrate the fake nature of the case”.
Reportedly, he claimed that he wasn’t present in Port Blair on one of the two dates given in the FIR and showed air tickets to confirm he had been in Delhi that day. However, the woman’s family informed that there had been was a mix-up in the dates provided by her, thereby clearing the matter.
(With PTI and IANS inputs)