Woman IAS officer accuses senior of harassment

A Haryana-cadre woman IAS officer of the 2014 batch has accused a senior bureaucrat, of the rank of additional chief secretary, of sexual harassment and threat.

She accused him of making unwanted advances, revealing her story through Facebook posts on Sunday.

She said the senior bureaucrat used to make her stay late at work. He would tell her that she "needed to be explained everything like a newlywed bride". She also said the officer would ask her not to write any comments on official files.

The bureaucrat has denied the charges, terming them baseless. He claimed the woman IAS officer was writing notes on almost every file to seek the opinion of law officers and was raising issues in every official matter, which he told her to desist from.

The woman officer's post read, "It was on May 22 that he asked me that I should mend my ways or face music... He asked me not to make any comments on files in writing... He said if I did not abide, he would not just get me transferred from department within two months but would also complain against me. He also threatened to spoil my Annual Confidential Report."

She said the senior bureaucrat was forcing her to accompany him for an event at Rohtak, where he was scheduled to deliver a lecture.

She wrote that her security had been withdrawn and she fears that the officer and his men may cause harm to her physically on the way back from Rohtak late at night.

An inquiry has been ordered into the woman officer's claims.

The lady officer said she wanted a thorough probe into the episode and a review of the CCTV footage of the bureaucrat's office.

She also cited an incident where she was sitting on the other side of the table to the officer and he asked her to come closer to him. "When I reached the other side of the table, he pretended to teach me how to operate a computer. I rushed back to my chair... After some time, he got up, pretended to be looking for a sheet of paper and came close to my chair and pushed it," she wrote.