IISc staffer alleges sex abuse by clerk

A housekeeper at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has accused a clerk of threatening to sack her after she spurned his sexual advances.

In a complaint to the Sadashivanagar police on Thursday, the 37-year-old woman stated that Gopalappa, the clerk, took her to the washroom on the pretext of assigning some cleaning work and misbehaved with her. She raised an alarm and asked him to stay away from her.

She said the suspect started harassing her by giving her menial jobs such as cleaning a dry well, desilting drains and removing rust from a pile of iron rods.

He even prevented her from eating lunch with her colleagues, saying she belongs to a ‘lower caste’ and cannot have food at the workplace.

When she objected to his behaviour, he threatened to complain to the agency that had hired her and make her jobless, the complaint stated.

The police have booked the suspect for outraging the modesty of a woman, criminal intimidation and under various sections of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.