Staff Reporter
TEZU, Dec 14: Textile & Handicrafts Development Officer, Dinathso Chaitom, is still absconding after being accused of making sexual advancements and physically assaulting a staffer on 1 December at the Textile & Handicrafts office here in Lohit district.
Superintendent of Police, Isaac Pertin, informed this daily that Chaitom has appealed for anticipatory bail from the High Court bench in Naharlagun, but the hearing on his case is yet to be held.
Reportedly, Chaitom’s wife is a staff member at the high court and lives in Naharlagun.
Suspecting Chaitom’s presence in Naharlagun, the Tezu unit police, with the assistance of the Naharlagun unit police conducted a raid at the residence of his wife in Naharlagun, but failed to locate him.
“His phone is also switched off, which is making it difficult for us to trace his location,” the SP said, and gave assurance that the police are making every effort to arrest the accused.
Meanwhile, the All Mishmi Women Welfare Society of Lohit district and the Women Welfare Society of Anjaw district in a press communiqué demanded that the district police arrest him at the earliest.
They also appealed to the department concerned to take disciplinary action against Chaitom under relevant provisions of the service rule for his misconduct.
Condemning the incident, the organisations said that ‘such ignominious, inhuman, and degraded action was unexpected from an educated and qualified person holding a high government position.’
Chaitom is an officer in the same department in which the victim has undergone training on weaving for the past three months.
‘As an officer of the department, he should have acted more like a father-figure and a guide, but he acted in an uncivilised and illiterate manner, which is unbecoming of an officer. We stand by the cause of the victim and are with her in the fight for justice,’ the organisations said.
