JOIN USAir India committee members charge-sheeted in bogus sexual harassment case
Members of an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) of Air India were charge-sheeted by the Crime Branch of the Kerala police in a fake sexual harassment complaint against an Air India official in Thiruvananthapuram. Kerala gold smuggling case accused and former employee of UAE consulate Swapna Suresh is also an accused in the case.
A bogus sexual harassment petition filed against officer apron of Air India in Thiruvananthapuram, L S Sibu, was the basis for the case. It is said to be for the first time that members of ICC were charge-sheeted in such a case. Senior AI official and an independent lawyer were among the members of the ICC.
The Crime Branch found that a section of officials of Air India, AI-SATS (a joint venture firm of Air India and Singapore Airport Terminal Services) and members of the internal complaints committee conspired to trap Sibu using a bogus sexual harassment petition in 2015. Sibu had petitioned central agencies against corruption and manipulations in ground handling charges of AI-SATS. That was the provocation, Crime Branch sources said.
The Kerala High Court had earlier quashed the ICC report after it was found that the sexual harassment petition was a bogus one. All the 17 women employees whose signatures were given on the fake petition had disowned it. The ICC was found to have given a report against Sibu by impersonating a bogus complainant.
Crime Branch sources said that the five-member ICC was found to have conspired with the others accused, who were AI-SATS employees.
Those charge-sheeted were Benoy Jacob, Swapna Suresh (gold smuggling cases accused), Deepak Anto, Sheeba K K and Neethu Mohan of AI-SATS and Internal Complaints Committee member and AI officials Uma Maheswarai S, Sathya Subramanian, R M S Rajan and Leena Vineetha and independent member of the committee advocate Sreeja Sasidharan. Swapna Suresh was found to have drafted the bogus petition.
Sibu was even denied the due promotions and transferred out of Kerala on the basis of the bogus petition.
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