Victim's lawyer questions Pachauri promotion in TERI

Prashant Mehndiratta, the lawyer of complainant in the sexual harassment case against RK Pachauri, on Tuesday questioned The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) for promoting Pachauri to the post of executive vice chairman.

Expressing disappointment over TERI's decision, Mehndiratta said that the post of executive vice-president was created to make Pachauri 'comfortable'.

"This is extremely sad scenario. Teri has created a new post. There was no such post as executive vice-chairman. So, a new term has been coined to give comfort to Mr. Pachauri. TERI needs to answer who was the earlier executive vice-chairman, when did he step down," he told ANI.

"TERI should make a statement whether Pachauri has been promoted or not. Maybe he has been demoted, maybe his salary has been reduced. Maybe his powers have been reduced, they should come out and make a statement," he added.

He also criticised TERI for their apathy towards victim, and said they had not expressed their support to the victim even once.

The victim had earlier slammed the governing council of TERI for promoting Pachauri to executive vice chairman, saying that it was a 'shameless act which made her flesh crawl'.

In an open letter, the complainant said that it was despicable that a man who stands booked on charges of sexual harassment at workplace, stalking and criminal intimidation had been promoted.

Pachauri has been charged with sexual harassment by a woman researcher who used to work directly under the veteran climate scientist and later resigned from her job as she felt 'let down' by TERI. She has now moved to another organisation.