News Analysis India

Tag: Sexual Harassment

  • Hearing deferred on bail plea of UP engineer’s wife held for alleged sexual exploitation of kids

    By PTI
    BANDA: A Banda court on Monday deferred the hearing on the bail plea of an engineer’s wife arrested by the CBI for allegedly exploiting children sexually and selling videos of the act to paedophiles across the globe on darknet for the last 10 years.

    The special court set up under the provisions of the Protection of the Children from Sexual Offences Act, deferred the hearing on the bail plea of engineer’s wife Durgawati to January 25 when the bail plea of her husband Rambhavan, arrested in the case, too is slated for the hearing.

    With the judicial remand of the couple lapsing on Monday, the court also extended their judicial custody by another 14 days till February 2, assistant government counsel Manoj Kumar Dixit said.

    On the CBI request, the court also added to the case sections related to the sexual offence under the POCSO Act, the counsel said.

    The Uttar Pradesh Irrigation Department’s junior engineer was arrested on November 16 following which he was also suspended.

    The arrest was made by a dedicated unit of the CBI specialising in the probe into cases of online sexual abuse and exploitation of children.

    The arrested junior engineer, a resident of Chitrakoot district, is alleged to have victimised about 50 children in the age group of 5 to 16 years in Chitrakoot, Banda and Hamirpur districts.

    During searches, the CBI had recovered eight mobile phones, around Rs eight lakh cash, sex toys, laptops and other digital evidence carrying a huge amount of child sexual abuse material, agency officials had said earlier.

    The junior engineer had allegdly been indulging in the crime for the last 10 years, mainly contacting and sharing the sexual abuse material with other paedophiles globally using the darknet and cloud services abroad, they said.

    He is also alleged to have told investigators that he used to bribe children with mobile phones and other electronic gadgets to keep their mouth shut about his activities.

  • Official suspended for seeking sexual favours from woman in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur

    By PTI
    JODHPUR: Officials on Monday suspended a sanitation inspector of the Jodhpur Municipal Corporation (JMC) for seeking sexual favours from a woman sanitation worker on the pretext of granting her a day’s leave, police said.

    On receiving information about the incident, sanitation workers of the concerned ward assembled at the ward office and allegedly beat the inspector.

    After a video of his beating went viral, the JMC administration immediately suspended him, they said.

    Commissioner (North) Rohitashwa Singh Tomar said that the accused has been suspended immediately after the video and an inquiry by the JMC committee under the Vishaka Guidelines has been initiated, which would submit its report.

    “On the basis of the report, disciplinary proceedings would be initiated against him,” Tomar said.

    Meanwhile, an audio clip of his conversation with the woman sanitation worker also went viral, in which he is purportedly been heard seeking her reply over his illicit proposal.

    This further corroborated the allegations on the inspector, police said.

    According to an information, the woman, a widow, was allegedly being harassed constantly by the sanitation inspector of ward 61 in Bhadwasia area for sometime, they said.

    On Sunday, she called him up and sought a day’s leave to attend to her brother, who was admitted in ICU of a hospital in a serious condition.

    But, instead of granting her permission in such a situation, he again sought sexual favours from her and expected her reply, police said.

    He also tempted her that if she said yes to his proposal, he would not only grant her leave and mark her attendance but would also help her with money in her brother’s treatment, they said.

    The woman then told him that she was not in a position to talk about it and hung up the phone asking him to mark a day’s leave in the attendance register against her name, police said.

    Meanwhile, her brother passed away and she shared the matter with other co-workers, who all reached the office of the ward on Monday morning and registered their protest and started beating the sanitation inspector, they said.

    The chief sanitation inspector of the area sent a report of the incident to the office and the orders of the sanitation inspector’s suspension were issued immediately, police said.

  • Two senior doctors of Dhanbad hospital face sexual harassment charges

    By PTI
    DHANBAD: The authorities of Patliputra Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) in Dhanbad has ordered an investigation after its two women doctors accused two senior physicians of sexually harassing them, Principal Dr Shailendra Kumar said on Monday.

    Principal Secretary (Health) Dr Nitin Madan Kulkarni asked the PMCH management to send the probe report to the department, he said.

    The two resident doctors in their complaint alleged that the head of the department of skin, Dr. SK Mandal, and a medical officer frequently call them in their OPD chambers and harass them.

    According to sources in the hospital, they also claimed that they were not given attendance on January 8 for not following such a directive.

    The two residents alleged that they were not given special leave available to women doctors, and charged the senior physicians with using foul language in presence of female colleagues.

    Mandal denied the charges and said he is ready to face any investigation.

    The other doctor was not available for comment.

    “The PMCH has formed a seven-member committee under Dr. Pratibha Ray, head of the department of gynecology, to probe the allegations and submit a report within a week,” the principal said.

    Kumar said that the report will be sent to the health department principal secretary and he will make the final decision on the issue.

  • Raipur Police release annual report for 2020

    The Raipur Police on Thursday released its annual report for the year 2020 claiming achievements amidst the opposition making hue and cry over deteriorating Law and Order situation claiming to be good only on paper. While addressing the mediapersons, the Raipur SSP Ajay Kumar Yadav claimed that due to the promptness and professional work execution of the Raipur Police, the crime rate in the capital has seen a dip. The Raipur police claimed that substantial dip has been registered in cases of culpable homicide, loot, thefts, cheating, arson, sexual harassment, etc. Similarly, there has been dip in cases of murder, rape and crime against women (Cases under Section 354 IPC) and burglary.

    According to the figures made available by the Raipur Police for 2019 and 2020, there has been a dip in murder cases by 1.25%; by 50% in cases of culpable homicide; by 14% in cases of rape; by 36% in cases of loot; by 17% in cases of burglary; by 27% in cases of thefts; by 29% in cases of cheating; by 41% in cases of arson; by 16% in cases of crime against women (Section 354 IPC) and by 30% in cases of sexual harassment. The Raipur Police in its list of achievements claimed that almost all accused indulged in murder cases have been apprehended. All dacoity cases have been solved with 74% recovery of goods. In cases of loot in 2020, in 49 cases out of total 55 cases, accused have been arrested and 75% goods recovered. Whereas, in 2019, 64% goods were recovered and accused were arrested in 72 out of 86 cases. In cases of burglary in 2020, accused have been arrested in all major cases and goods recovered.

    The recovery was 42% in 2019, in comparison to 55% in 2020. In cases of theft during 2020 all major cases solved, culprits arrested and goods recovered. In 2019, the recovery was 35% while in 2020 it was 52%. In cases of Crime against women, efforts were made towards fast arresting of accused and with an intention of fast justice challans were put up in designated courts within 15 days. In 17 cases of rape, accused were arrested from different parts of the country (cases include 2016 to 2020). Altogether 241 crimes committed through sharp weapons were registered in 2020 in comparison to 310 in 2019. In comparison to year 2019, action has been taken on 100% cases of illicit liquor trade in 2020 and 10,203 litres of illicit liquor were seized in comparison to 5467 liters in 2019. In 2020, a campaign was launched against drug trafficking and good success was achieved.

    Apart from solving other petty crimes successfully, the Capital police performed exemplarily in the enforcement of lockdown followed by unlock keeping strict vigil on offenders. It also distributed food among needy and arranged transportation. While fighting with COVID-19 pandemic, more than 352 officers/staff were infected and three police officials died. Among the major crimes which gained much spotlight and were solved by Raipur police, including cracking of industrialist Praveen Somani abduction case with safe recovery of the victim and arrest of main accused. Cracking Pankaj Bothra murder case and four other cases of loot/murder of jewellers; solving the case of Rs 50 lakh loot on gunpoint from timber merchant; solving theft of Rs 28 lakh from liquor shop in Mana; cracking Rs 10 crore fraud case and fake loan gang; solving inter-state truck loot case; fraud worth crores in the name of Mudra loan, etc; solving Rs 10 crore fraud through Max Life Insurance; cracking international network of drug supply; ATM break-in cases; as well as many other major burglary and loot cases.

  • FIR against husband, seven others for harassing woman in Maharashtra

    By PTI
    THANE: Thane police have registered an FIR against a woman’s husband, in-laws and five other people from Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district for allegedly harassing her, an official said on Monday.

    According to the 27-year-old Kalyan-based woman, the accused, including two persons who facilitated her alliance, allegedly harassed her between June 2019 and March 2020 over various domestic issues, including her failure to cook non- vegetarian food and inability to conceive, he said.

    They also allegedly demanded Rs 5 lakh for getting a government job for her husband and forced her to leave her job, the official said quoting the woman’s complaint.

    She also alleged that those who facilitated her alliance did not inform that her husband had an affair with a woman before the marriage and was addicted to liquor, he said.

    Based on the woman’s complaint, the Kolshewadi police registered the FIR on Saturday under Indian Penal Code Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 498-A (cruelty), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention).

    No arrest has been made so far, the official said.