TN top cop faces sex harassment charge

... placed on compulsory wait

A top police officer in Tamil Nadu, Rajesh Das, who was posted in an exclusively created post as Special Director General of Police, was on Wednesday placed on “compulsory wait” by the State Government following sexual harassment charges levelled against him by a young woman IPS officer.

He is the second senior IPS officer in the State to be accused of sexual harassment by female colleagues in recent years. In 2018, a senior woman officer had accused an Inspector General of Police of hugging her in his office. The accused officer has since been given a new posting.

Sources said a young Superintendent of Police had complained that Rajesh Das misbehaved with her in his car during a recent official tour of Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami. The complainant refused to be cowed down despite pressure from some senior officers, sources claimed.

Acting on the complaint, the Government on Wednesday set up a six-member inquiry committee headed by IAS officer Jayashree Raghunandan to probe into it. The other members of the committee include ADGP Seema Agarwal, IGP A Arun, DIG B. Shamoondeswari, Chief Administrative Officer in the Office of the DGP, V.K. Ramesh Babu; and International Justice Mission programme management head Loretta Jhona.

“The committee shall take necessary further course of action as per the provisions of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (Central Act 14 to 2013) on the said complaint,” an order isused by Home Secretary S K Prabakar said.