Delhi Aerocity hotel employee ‘molested’ by colleague, fired for complaining

In the CCTV footage, the security manager is seen trying to disrobe the victim who manages to push him off. The accused was arrested by Delhi Police on Friday, 18 days after the woman had registered her complaint with them.

A 33-year-old woman executive at a hotel in Delhi’s Aerocity has accused the hotel’s security manager of molesting and trying to disrobe her on her birthday late last month.

A grab from the CCTV footage shows the manager trying to force himself upon the staff member. (ANI)

The incident occurred inside the hotel’s CCTV room and was captured by a CCTV camera. The woman alleged that she complained to the hotel’s HR officials, but instead of acting against the security manager, they sacked her. The woman then approached the police with a complaint on August 1.

Police finally arrested the man on Friday after TV news channels ran a video of the alleged molestation. “The accused was arrested on Friday and produced in a court. He was granted bail by the court,” said Dependra Pathak, Delhi Police spokesperson.

The victim, who worked on the front desk of the hotel, has told police that the hotel’s security manager had been pressuring her to establish physical relations with him for quite some time, but she had rejected his advances.

One evening late last month, on her birthday, the security chief approached her and allegedly offered to buy her a gift. When she refused the offer, he allegedly pulled her by her saree in front of another male employee.

The CCTV footage showed the security officer seated on a wheeled-chair suddenly pulling her by her saree. But she managed to keep him away after a brief tussle. When the male employee left the room, the security manager allegedly proposed that she should spend the night with him in the hotel.

The woman alleged that when she left the hotel, the man accosted her in his car some distance away and tried to forcibly pull her in. However, the woman managed to escape again. Police say they have the footage of this too and are analysing it.

The woman said once she got rid of the security manager that evening, she called the hotel’s assistant manager of the human resource department to inform about the alleged harassment. But the HR officials allegedly did not act on her complaint and instead “sacked” her on Thursday afternoon.

“I was summoned by the HR department on Thursday afternoon and informed that I was being terminated from job. They did not offer any reason when I asked them on what basis they were sacking me. I resisted their action and said I would neither take the termination letter, nor resign, but the HR ordered that I be made to leave the hotel building,” the woman told Hindustan Times over phone.

But a spokesperson of the hotel claimed that the woman was never fired from job. “She has stopped reporting to duty for the last three-four days,” the spokesperson said, adding that the accused security manager was suspended the very next day after the woman approached the police.

The accused has been booked for sexual harassment, stalking and assaulting a woman with the intent to outrage her modesty.