Enough evidence to proceed: Delhi High Court on RK Pachauri case

A year after the sexual harassment case was filed against him by his junior female employee, the Delhi HC has taken cognizance of the chargesheet filed against Ex-chairman of The Energy & Resources Institute (TERI), R K Pachauri. This happened after the Delhi police filed a 1000-pages long chargesheet against him.The HC believes there is enough evidence against Pachauri to take the chargesheet into consideration and move forward with the case.

The court said there's enough material in the police chargesheet against Pachauri under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) related to sexual harassment, as reported by TOI. 354-A, 354-B, 354-D, 509 and 341 of IPC are majorly linked with sexual harassment and wrongful command.

In a recent interview with NDTV, Pachauri was asked about what had been going on for the past months assumingly in relation with the sexual assault case and he played the best victim card by saying that this was happening to him because he was the chairperson.

The police had registered a sexual assault case against Pachauri after a female employee of TERI complained of misbehaviour by the ex-boardmember in Feb 2015. The police also seeked 23 people who are ready to be presented as prosecution witness to Pachauri’s inappropriate behaviour. The chargesheet consists of sections containing call detail records, transcripts of emails exchanged and text messages sent by Pachauri among other things.

Also read: RK Pachauri Case: All you need to know

In the last few months, many women have come forward to admit the fact that they were also, at some point in their careers, molested by the Chief while working for him. This also found place in the chargesheet against Pachauri sent by the Police.

Inspite of these charges, Pachauri’s position was elevated at TERI and he was made the Executive Vice Chairman of the organisation. This position was especially carved out for Pachauri so he could still stay in the governing body of TERI. But this move was greeted by huge public outcry which led to his suspension for an indefinite period. A few weeks back, his acquittal was confirmed.

As for the complainant, her struggle to get Pachauri to Court has not been an easy one. Her identity was revealed in the TERI office and she was ostracised by the other employees, even those who supported her. All her actions were carefully scrutinised. She had to quit TERI herself before the acquittal of Pachauri because of how people at TERI stood against her.

Feature Image Credit: news24 online