Tamil Nadu Advocate-General R Shanmugasundaram on Thursday produced in the Madras High Court, the report of the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC), constituted to probe the alleged sexual harassment of a woman IPS officer by a suspended DGP.
The AG submitted the report in a sealed cover to Justice V Parthiban when the writ petition from the suspended Special DGP came up for further hearing today. The judge adjourned the matter till December 17.
The petition prayed the court to quash the proceedings that had been conducted so far by the ICC and order a proper inquiry after following due process of law and in accordance with the provisions of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act.
When the matter came up earlier on October 22, Justice C Saravanan had then ordered maintenance of status-quo in respect of the proceedings pending before the ICC. He adjourned the matter by four weeks, with a direction to the State file its counter by then.
Following a complaint from a woman IPS officer on February 22 this year that she was allegedly sexually harassed by the suspended officer, the ICC was formed to inquire into the allegations.
In his writ petition, the official alleged that two members of the ICC were biased against him. The committee had submitted its report to the state government on April 8 without holding enquiry in a proper and unbiased manner. He also claimed most of the witnesses were subordinates to the complainant and they could not depose freely.
Hence, he prayed for the transfer of the complainant too to some other place. But, this request was also not considered. Based on the ICC’s report, a charge-memo was issued to him on May 31. But, even a copy of the ICC’s report was not furnished to him.
“As such the entire proceedings are vitiated and liable to be struck down,” he claimed.
Meanwhile, as directed by the court, a counter was filed on behalf of the state DGP refuting all the contentions of the accused official.
Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/chennai/sexual-harassment-plaint-against-police-officer-icc-report-submitted-in-madras-hc-7665116/
