At a time when the country is fuming over the stalking case against Haryana BJP MLA's son Vikas Barala and his friend Ashish in Chandigarh, a 38-year-old NRI woman has filed a case of stalking, extortion and sexual assault against her ex-boss.
The woman said the man not only assaulted her in India, but continued the harassment even after she moved to Australia with her husband and children. The man has been booked under relevant sections of IPC for causing hurt, rape, cheating, voyeurism and criminal intimidation, according to a report by Mail Today.
The woman alleged that man, based in Hyderabad, would often travel to Gurugram for work.
“He started involving me in his projects and make conscious efforts to be friendly and empathetic, and even appreciate my efforts in public,” she was reported as saying by Mail Today.
Knowing that she would be alone at her Gurugram residence, the accused, in March 2013, called her up saying that he was coming over.
“I poured him and myself a glass of cold drink. After serving him the drink, I went inside the kitchen for a couple of minutes. After we finished our drinks, I fell unconscious," she said in the FIR.
The woman claimed that when she woke up after some time, she found herself lying nude in the bedroom and the accused asked her to forget what had happened and threatened her not to tell that to anyone or he leak her objectionable photos, a video of the incident.
“He even asked me to please him in all ways and keep him happy," she added in the FIR.
After that incident, the woman had to accompany him to many high-end hotels and various cities across the country, and “was forced to bear the pain of mental and sexual abuse."
He even began extorting money from her and she had paid him lakhs of rupees at several intervals, the newspaper reported.
But her plight didn’t stop there. The victim claims that the man stalked her to so closely that he even knew about her plans to migrate to Australia. After she moved to Australia, he continued to harass her.
“He sent a long message to my husband, assassinating my character and sent us emails. His emails gave me feelers that he was still following me. I thought of complaining to the police just before moving to Australia but I did not do it to avoid being placed in an uncomfortable situation,” he said.
One day in Melbourne, someone touched her on the shoulder from behind, introduced himself as the accused and told her, "Prepare to die." However, when the victim turned around, she could not find anyone, the woman said.
A recent report by news agency PTI said most of the top listed companies in India have begun making public some basic data of sexual harassment at workplace and the disclosed numbers show a disturbing uptick.
Disclosing details of the complaints received under a new law, Infosys said the total number of cases filed in the fiscal 2016-17 was 88 (up from 62 in the previous year). While five cases were disposed of by conciliation (as against one in previous fiscal), 72 were disposed of by disciplinary actions (up from 61). Infosys further said 11 cases evaluated by the internal committee were reported in March 2017 and the investigation process was underway as on March 31.
TCS has disclosed 65 complaints of sexual harassment for the year 2016-17, of which four were pending at the end of the fiscal. During the previous fiscal 2015-16, TCS had received 34 complaints of sexual harassment out of which 33 were resolved with appropriate action taken and one remained pending at fiscal-end where internal review was in process.
Wipro also said it has a policy and framework for employees to report sexual harassment cases at workplace and our process ensures complete anonymity and confidentiality of information.
(WIth PTI inputs)
