Former Mumbai captain Shishir Hattangadi has criticised the findings of the three-member panel set up by the BCCI’s Committee of Administrators to investigate the allegations of sexual harassment against CEO Rahul Johri, after it cleared him of the charges.
Hattangadi was one of the people who deposed in front of the panel after alleging that his friend had been harassed by Johri.
The panel, headed by Justice (Retd) Rakesh Sharma, ruled, “The allegations of sexual harassment in the office or elsewhere are false, baseless and have been fabricated and manufactured with an ulterior motive to harm Mr Rahul Johri....”
Hattangadi took to Twitter to voice his disappointment with the ruling.
Rahul Johri will walk back to work head held high as the paragon of virtue having won 2-1 in a humdinger of his appraisal in the #MeToo probe. So happy for him,the 1 of the 2 has no relevance to a question mark on his virtues,I guess !
— shishir hattangadi (@shishhattangadi) November 21, 2018
He also told The Indian Express that the panel’s findings were akin to “victim shaming”.
Responding to the ruling, the 57-year-old was quoted as saying, “By saying that it’s malafide, destructive, malicious, they are insulting the people who have come forward...If some people have come forward and deposed, respect their deposition. It is victim shaming.”
Hattangadi also feels there is “something amiss” despite the findings of the panel since it was not a unanimous verdict. While two members of the panel – Sharma and Barkha Singh – dismissed the allegations completely, the third member, Veena Gowda, questioned Johri’s conduct and advised him to undergo “gender-sensitivity counselling”, according to the report.
Hattangadi said, “There are questions needed to be asked. And for this I don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to realise that there is something amiss...If one person is saying you need help, you need counselling and you behaved not unbecoming of a CEO and two people have given a contrary opinion, it talks about the dichotomy of a probe and that is, for me, questioning [the] wisdom of people.”
the Johri probe in numbers.He is 33.1/3% guilty of not living up to the expectations of a person sitting in a responsible chair,66.2/3% of him is a paragon of virtue but counselling and therapy is recommended!
— shishir hattangadi (@shishhattangadi) November 22, 2018
He added, “If two people are saying he is a pope and needs to stay at the Vatican and one person is saying he needs to go to the counsellor, you judge yourself. They are not only on different pages but they are in different books and that, to me, is unnerving.”
The papal conclave of the BCCI (probe commitee) appointed by the COA concluded that Mr.Johri is the Pope to sit in the Vatican,two of them say he is holier than the Pope and one says otherwise. That's a collosal dichotomy from the sublime to the ridiculous!
— shishir hattangadi (@shishhattangadi) November 21, 2018
The two-member CoA was also divided on the matter. While chairman Vinod Rai approved of Johri resuming his post at the BCCI, Diana Edulji demanded his resignation.
“I resumed office today and all my colleagues have been warm and welcoming,” Johri was quoted as saying by PTI on Wednesday. “It has been a tough one and half months for me and my family. I wish no one has to go through what I have gone through.”