It’s a man’s world: 7 sexual harassment cases that rocked India
RK Pachauri isn’t the first prominent Indian to be accused of sexual harassment. HT takes a look at seven such cases.
A former researcher at Delhi’s The Energy and Resources Institute has alleged the institution’s boss RK Pachauri sexually harassed her, triggering outrage on social media, especially after he was promoted this week.
But this isn’t the first time a prominent Indian has been embroiled in a sexual harassment charge. HT looks at seven prominent sexual harassment cases in the past that involved influential Indians:
1.KPS Gill: Senior IAS officer Rupan Deol Bajaj complained in 1988 that former Punjab director general of police, KPS Gill, touched her inappropriately at a party.
Status: Trial court convicted Gill in 1996. Supreme Court upheld the decision in 2005 but the former top cop didn’t serve any jail time
2.Phaneesh Murthy: One of India’s best known software executives and a rising star at the time, Phaneesh Murthy had to resign from Infosys in 2002 after his secretary Reka Maximovitch accused him of sexual harassment.
Status: Infosys settled for $3 million outside court. Murthy was also sacked by an American IT firm in 2013 on sexual harassment charges.
3.Gopal Kanda: In a 2012 suicide note, 23-year-old airhostess Geetika Sharma charged Gopal Kanda, a former Haryana minister, of sexually harassing her and forcing her to take her life.
Status: The case is being tried in the Delhi high court
4.David Davidar: The Indian-born author was sacked as head of Penguin Canada in 2010 following allegations by another firm employee, Lisa Rundle, that Davidar sexually harassed her for three years, assaulting her in 2009 during the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Status: Out-of-court settlement in 2010
5.Shiamak Davar: The Bollywood choreographer was sued by two Vancouver-based former students of his dance school for sexual harassment in Canada last year. The two men accused Davar of “controlling” them through a spiritual organisation and “grooming” them into “sexual submission”.
Status: Hearings on in Canada
6.Asok Kumar Ganguly: The former Supreme Court judge stepped down as head of the West Bengal human rights commission in 2014 after a law intern accused him of sexually harassing her at a hotel room.
Status: A three-member Supreme Court panel indicted Ganguly for “unwelcome behaviour” and “conduct of sexual nature”, prompting his resignation
7.Tarun Tejpal: Possibly the most notorious case of them all. The former Tehelka chief was accused of sexual assault and rape during a Goa event by a former colleague. The case grabbed international headlines after allegations that staffers at Tehelka had tried to bury the complaint.
Status: The case is being heard in a Goa court.
Read:
Despite sexual assault charge, Pachauri made executive VC of TERI
