Pune Police arrest top official of industrial group for allegedly sexually harassing employee
The complainant said the managing director of her company stalked her and sent her text messages with sexual overtones.
The Pune Police on Wednesday arrested the managing director of a city-based industrial group after a female employee accused him of stalking and sexually harassing her, The Times of India reported. However, the 58-year-old was almost immediately released on bail as he was reportedly unwell.
In her complaint, the 38-year-old woman said that the official had been sending her sexually explicit messages since she joined the firm in 2017. When she lodged a complaint with a panel in the company that looks into complaints of sexual harassment, the company offered her a transfer to another department. “The complainant, while registering the case, had furnished all the evidence including the text and voice messages sent by the accused and recorded conversations, which have sexual overtones,” PTI quoted Anil Patrudkar, the senior inspector at Mundhwa police station, as saying.
The complainant told The Times of India that she stopped going to work on February 15, and that the company’s Human Resource Department had given her time to reconsider the decision to not seek a transfer. “Before approaching a senior police officer here, I had filed a complaint application at the police commissioner’s office demanding action against the MD [managing director] on February 23,” she said. “I also sent e-mails to my superiors and the company’s panel, which looks at sexual harassment cases, but no action has been taken against the MD.”
Both the official and his company refused to comment on the matter. “We are not aware about any case filed with the police, as mentioned in your e-mail,” a company spokesperson told The Times of India. “A complaint about sexual harassment was made by one of the employees. This complaint is being currently inquired by an internal committee constituted under Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013. Since the matter is being investigated by the internal committee under the said Act, it is inappropriate to comment on the subject issue.”