IAS officer alleges sexual harassment by her senior

Chandigarh: A woman IAS officer of 2014 batch of Haryana cadre has accused her senior, a bureaucrat of the rank of additional chief secretary, of sexual harassment.

The woman, in a Facebook post on Sunday, said that the senior officer would make her stay late at work until 7 or 8 pm, make unwanted advances and even tried to threaten her into not putting on record dissenting comments about work because it would reflect poorly on the department.

“It was on May 22 that he first called me to his office and asked me that I should mend my ways or face music throughout my career. He asked me not to make any comments on files as it highlighted what was going wrong in department and if I did not abide he would not just get me transferred from department within two months but would also complain against me. He also threatened to spoil my ACR,” the post said.

She claimed that the officer was forcing her to go with him to an event at Rohtak, where he was scheduled to deliver a discourse on spirituality.

“Even my security has been withdrawn and fears the officer and his men can harm me physically on way back from Rohtak in the late night,” the woman officer has written.

The woman has also accused another senior woman IAS officer of ordering her against formally lodging a complaint for sexual harassment.

“I want a thorough inquiry, including review of CCTV footage of the office of my senior and seek police security for me as I am under constant threat,” she said.

The senior IAS officer against whom the charges were levelled has denied the allegations, calling them “baseless”.

“She was writing notes on almost every file for seeking opinion of the AG or the LR and was raising issues in every official matter. I just told her that she should desist from doing this. I could not have said all this in presence of my other subordinates,” he claimed.