Sexual harassment: Delhi court takes cognizance of chargesheet, says sufficient ground to proceed against RK Pachauri

A Delhi court took cognizance of chargesheet filed against RK Pachauri, who is accused of sexually harassing a colleague in TERI.

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Saturday took cognizance of charge sheet filed against ex-chief of TERI RK Pachauri who is embroiled in charges of sexually harassing a female colleague in February 2015.

The court said that there is sufficient material to proceed against Pachauri under section 354 A, 354 B, 354D,509 and 341, drops section 506 of Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The court has fixed July 11 as the date to supply copy of chargesheet to RK Pachauri, according to ANI report.

Earlier, Delhi Police chargesheeted the former executive chairman of TERI under various sections of the Indian Penal Code dealing with assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty, sexual harassment, stalking, criminal intimidation and word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman.

The police have cited around 23 prosecution witnesses and several SMS texts, e-mails and WhatsApp messages exchanged between the accused and victim as evidence to support their case.

Pachauri has been charged with sexual harassment by a woman researcher who used to work directly under the veteran climate scientist and later resigned from her job as she felt 'let down' by TERI. She has now moved to another organisation.

Despite being enmeshed in allegations of multiple sexual harassment, Pachauri was elevated to the newly created post of the Executive Vice Chairman in February this year. However, after receiving severe criticism from across the nation, TERI asked him to proceed on indefinite leave on February 12.

(With ANI inputs)