A local court in Villupuram granted bail to suspended Additional director general of Police (ADGP) Rajesh Das shortly after convicting him in a 2021 sexual harassment case. The court allowed him 30 days’ time for appeal. The court has sentenced Das to three years imprisonment and also levied a fine of Rs 10,000 on him.
He was charged with sexually harassing a junior woman police official based on her complaint in early 2021.
According to a report by The Print, the FIR stated the officer as alleging that the special DGP told her to accompany him in his car during then-chief minister Edapaddi Palanisamy’s meeting on February 21. The FIR stated that the senior officer allegedly held her hand in the car and sang “for about 20 minutes”, and then he went on to kiss her hand.
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“I took my hand away and told him I was not comfortable and that it was inappropriate. He said (give me) only five minutes and took my hand again,” the FIR states, as quoted by The Print’s report. “At this point due to tension and anxiety, sweat had built up on my palms, and realizing it, he gave me his towel to wipe off the sweat.”
During the journey, he allegedly showed her a photograph of her that he had clicked earlier, during a visit to her office. According to the FIR, the IPS officer told her that he had saved the picture among his “favourites” so that he could easily access it.
As per the complainant, Das went to great lengths to prevent her from reporting the misdemeanour, also pleading with her and then misusing government machinery to intimidate her, the report mentioned.
According to The Print, the court let off another IPS officer and then Chengalpet superintendent of police with a Rs 500 fine. He had allegedly blocked the woman IPS officer’s vehicle in an attempt to prevent her from going to Chennai with her complaint.
The woman IPS officer had filed the case against the top cop on March 1, 2021.
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