MADURAI: A day after a fake message against a senior HR and CE official went viral on social media, a group of women officials from the department on Monday lodged a formal complaint with Madurai City Police Commissioner J Loganathan, seeking action against the people behind it.
The fake WhatsApp message claimed that 21 women officials of HR and CE department had filed a sexual harassment complaint against the senior official.
When contacted by TNIE, Joint Commissioner K Chelladurai had dismissed the content of the message as “fake”. He told TNIE that it must be the handiwork of some disgruntled employees of the department. Chelladurai has also filed a separate police complaint.
The women, in their police complaint, said they had neither drafted any complaint saying that the senior HR&CE official sexually harassed them nor had signed anywhere. They have now sought police action against the people who circulated the fake complaint taking their names.
TNIE’s efforts to reach out to the women went in vain. Some of them who came to lodge the police complaint refused to speak to reporters.
Police officials said an investigation is currently under way. “The petitioners suspect that another HR and CE official, who was suspended on the last day of his retirement, may be behind the issue,” police officials said.
A senior HR and CE official said they are independently holding a probe into the issue.