Third woman alleges Pachauri of sexual harassment

The woman says she worked closely with Mr Pachauri for four months in 2008

A third woman came out on Thursday alleging sexual harassment against R K Pachauri.

Speaking to a television channel, the woman said she had worked under Pachauri for four months in 2008 at environment non-profit The Energy and Resources Institute (Teri), which was headed by him then. She alleged that during this time, Pachauri repeatedly behaved inappropriately with her.

However, she said her requests for a transfer to another department was granted. Soon after, her work contract of a year was terminated just four months into it.

Questions sent to Teri went unanswered till the time of this story going to print.

While the identity of the woman was withheld, it was said she is a foreign national and currently lives in Europe. She also said she was "Zero per cent surprised" after reading about other complains against Pachauri last year.
 

Last year in February, a 26-year-old researcher at TERI had taken Pachauri to court Pachauri saying that soon after she joined in September 2013, he began harassing her via email, WhatsApp and text messaging, and persisted despite her requests that he stop. He has denied all charges.

In February, this year, a second former TERI employee again alleged sexual harassment by the scientist between 2003 and 2004.

In early March, Delhi police had filed a chargesheet accusing Pachauri of stalking and intimidating the researcher. The police had based its charges on emails and text messages exchanged between the accused and the complainant, as also their call details.