"Ready For Lie-Detection Test": Haryana Top Officer On Sexual Misconduct Allegation By Junior

ROHTAK:  A 28-year-old woman IAS officer, posted in a Haryana government department, has accused her senior of sexually harassing her. She wrote in a social media post that she was also "threatened" for writing "adverse comments on official files".

She claims the officer called her several times to his office and on one occassion "instructed his staff not to enter the room". She also alleged that he "pretended to teach me how to operate a computer... came close to my chair and pushed it".

Sunil Gulati, who is Haryana Additional Chief Secretary, has rubbished the allegations and claimed that the woman officer was only advised "not to find faults with the files which have got all necessary clearances".

"It's a false and baseless allegation. She was posted here a month ago. She was facing problems, so I asked staff to take care of her. But she misbehaved with them," Mr Gulati said.

He said that he hasn't done anything wrong and he was only doing his job. "It's my duty to train my staff. It's up to her to be willing to learn. If going to field troubles her, the government can transfer her. I'm ready for investigation or even a lie-detection test," Mr Gulati told news agency ANI.

According to the woman officer, he had allegedly threatened to file a complaint and "spoil her Annual Confidential Report (ACR) if she did not stop writing adverse comments on the official files".

"He asked me to tell what type of work I wanted to do, whether I want departmental work or time-pass work... And then he asked me to stop writing adverse comments on the files. He told me that like a newly wed bride, she has to be explained everything, and he was explaining to me in the same manner. His behaviour seemed immoral," she alleged in her Facebook post.

Then on June 6, she added, the senior officer called her in his office at 5 pm and asked her to stay there. "I was sitting on the other side of the table in front of him. He asked me to get up and come closer to his chair. When I reached the other side of the table, he pretended to teach me how to operate a computer. I rushed back to my chair... After some time, he got up. Pretending to find a paper, he came close to my chair and pushed it," she wrote.

The woman officer said she had written to President Ram Nath Kovind regarding the incident. Let the CCTV footage be examined. All things will become clear, she demanded.


Mr Gulati refuted the charge and said that he always ensured that someone was present in my office when she was there and he, in fact, went out of his way to help her. "We tried to provide all facilities to her. She did not even have a cabin and I asked my staff to provide her one," he said.

"I don't think she was everalone in my office except for a few minutes on a couple of occasions," he claimed.

He also said that the woman officer had been "finding faults" with every official file and he only advised her "to stop writing adverse comments on every file she takes up as people from some other department may spoil her ACR".

(With inputs from agencies)

Source: NDTV