JOIN USA second young woman has levelled allegations of sexual harassment against tainted environmentalist R K Pachauri accusing him of making sexual advances and misconduct when she worked in The Energy and Resources Institute (Teri) — a organisation that Pachauri headed for decades.
“Despite having communicated to him repeatedly that I did not like any of his sexual advances, he continued to make verbal and physical sexual advances towards me,” said the woman, a former employee of Teri. She made a police complaint through her lawyer in February 2015. But with little action on her case, her five page complaint letter with explicit details was made public by a non-governmental organisation, that fights for the women’s cause. In the letter, she narrated how Pachauri kissed her, asked her to come for a swim with him and compelled her to travel with him alone in a car.
“On several occasions, Pachauri would ask me intrusive questions about my personal life, about when my husband was going to be out of town, and how I spent my weekends. He would pass comments about the clothes I was wearing, asking me whether my husband gave me a particular dress etc. He made constant attempts to meet me socially outside the office,” she said. “The issue of sexual harassment at the workplace was not discussed at Teri and employees and staff had never been informed about what they could do in case they faced sexual harassment at Teri,” she said in a statement.
The woman had joined Teri in 2003 and Pachauri was the director general during that time. “I worked there for over a year... My job description required me to interact with him in person on occasions. He would often telephone me himself or have his secretary call me,” she said.
According to her complaint, she had raised the matter to the administrative director of the organisation who refused to believe her charges. “I complained to Commodore Joshi, the then Director, Administration, Services and Teri Press, who was also a close aide of Pachauri. He refused to believe me, saying that I may have misread his warmth and that such things had never been reported, and requested me to end the matter there,” she said.