Congress Party IT Cell Member Accused Of Molestation, Gets Bail

Congress Party's IT Cell member, Chirag Patnaik, 39, was arrested by the Delhi Police after he was accused of molestation by a former colleague. Patnaik was later released on bail from police station within an hour.

What happened?

A former co-worker had accused Patnaik of sexual harassment earlier this month, reported Outlook India.

A complaint was lodged at the North Avenue police station. New Delhi Deputy Commissioner of Police Madhur Verma said, "The complainant said she was a member of the Congress social media team. Since the offences are cognisable, we booked accused Chirag Patnaik at the North Avenue police station under Sections 354A and 509 of the Indian Penal Code."

Police officials said that the woman had sent an e-mail to the Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik. “She has alleged in her complaint that the accused had made her feel uncomfortable on several occasions and mentioned terms like violation of her personal space and immoral behaviour in her complaint,” the Indian Express reported.

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Congress's IT Cell Issues Statement

Divya Spandana, Congress social media head issued an official statement on the behalf of the party's IT cell. In her statement she backed Patnaik, saying that the entire team is in support of him as he is innocent.

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Spandana's statement reads, "The complaints committee does not have any written/verbal/official/unofficial complain from the ex-worker, neither do we have access to the complainant...The team has also come out in support of the current worker (accused) based on the interactions and experience of working with him. The team has also recalled some of their conversations with the ex-worker (complainant) and has no reason to believe that the current worker could have misbehaved with the ex-worker."

The statement was tweeted by Spandana.

In response to the recent allegations against one of our team workers by an ex worker, please read the statement below- pic.twitter.com/4LVa5Hzoxk

— Divya Spandana/Ramya (@divyaspandana) July 3, 2018

Earlier, Spandana had also tweeted, saying that the complainant had cited personal as well as health issues as the reason behind her resignation.

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Kriti Dwivedi is an intern with SheThePeople.Tv