Harassment complaint filed against Odia writer

Bhubaneswar: A complaint was filed on Thursday against noted Odia litterateur Haraprasad Das for sexually harassing a woman poet on social media.

Writer Pallishree Patnaik, who works as a lecturer in a government college, lodged the complaint with a police station in Kalahandi district, seeking action against the writer.

She alleged that Das had first befriended her on Facebook and then started sending indecent messages and sought sexual favours on the pretext of boosting her literary career.

"I have filed the complaint as I was mentally and socially harassed by Das. I am also planning to file a defamation suit against him in the court," said Pallishree.

Das refuted the charges stating that he never had any Facebook account and the messages must have been sent by a hacker.

The teacher filed the complaint three days after Das filed a defamation case in a Bhubaneswar court against eight persons, including Pallishree, for maligning his image by levelling false allegations on social media.

Earlier, the complainant had drawn the attention of people through a Facebook post and also attached the screenshots of the chat she had with the award-winning writer.

Following the allegations, members of a city-based literary organisation also knocked on the doors of the Odisha State Commission for Women on August 1.