[ Bengia Ajum ]
BOMDILA, 12 Jul: A lady police constable working in West Kameng district has made serious allegation of sexual harassment against B. Bharat Reddy, the former SP of the district who has now been transferred to Delhi. Reddy is an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer and has been recently transferred out of the state. On 8th July he was relieved from the charge of SP, West Kameng district.
The lady constable lodged a complaint with the internal complaints committee of the district police and made a startling allegation.
As per the complaint letter, a copy of which is available with this daily, the constable alleged that on 23rd June between 11 pm and 12 am, she received a plethora of Whatsapp messages from the official number of the SP seeking sexual favour. Apart from sending messages, she also received a voice call from the SP. Taken aback by the messages, she did not respond. Further, she alleged that the incident triggered a sense of psychosis and deeply traumatized her. In her complaint she sought prompt and drastic action against the SP Reddy under the relevant sections of the law.
Based on her complaint, a seven-member internal complaint committee was constituted by the district police under the chairmanship of DySP(HQ) Radhe Obing. The committee met on 27th June and after deliberation decided to transfer the case to the local complaint committee.
“As in this instant case, the alleged accused is the head of the department and overall supervisory officer of the entire district police, the Internal Complaint Committee, after prolonged deliberation and discussion has decided to forward the complaint to local complaint committee (LCC), West Kameng district under section 6 (1) of the Harassment of Women at Work Place (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013,” the committee observed while forwarding case to the office of deputy commissioner, West Kameng district.
As per the sources, the LCC will meet on 15th July to look into the complaint. The committee is headed by advocate Kamala Dewan and it includes 8 members in total. On 6th July, in her capacity as the chairperson of the committee she issued summon to the SP B. Bharat Reddy asking him to appear before the committee on 15th of this month.
