Kendrapara: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has directed Odisha DGP to submit action taken report (ATR) within four weeks with regard to sexual harassment of a woman employee by the president of Kendrapara Credit Co-operative Society.
The NHRC issued the direction on the petition of rights activist Pratap Chandra Mohanty of Talasanga under Marshaghai block who had alleged that accused Pramod Kumar Sahu, the president of the Coop society and Kamalakanta Suar, an insurance adviser, had sexually harassed the victim, a clerk in their office.
The petitioner alleged that the victim complained to Kendrapara town police April 23, 2019 against which an FIR (138/2019) was filed under Section 354(b)(1),509, 506,294 of IPC was registered.
The police, however, had neither arrested the accused nor taken any other action in the matter. Moreover, the victim has been threatened and pressurized to withdraw the complaint.
The petitioner urged the NHRC to order a Crime Branch probe and seek action taken report from Kendrapara Superintendent of Police along with an order to provide compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the victim.
Acting on the petition, the NHRC directed the DGP to submit a detailed report within four weeks .
When contacted, Kendrapara SP Niti Sekhar said accused Pramod Sahu was arrested by Kendrapara police November 3 for workplace harassment of the victim. Co-accused Kamalakanta Suar has not been arrested because his involvement in the case has not been proved so far.
Notably, the SDJM court has granted conditional bail to Pramod Sahu last Thursday on the direction of the Odisha High Court.