Court finds 'sufficient' evidence against Pachauri in sexual harassment case

New Delhi: Trouble has mounted for environmentalist R.K. Pachauri, as a local court on Saturday took cognizance of the chargesheet filed against him, saying there were sufficient materials to proceed, while dropping one section of the IPC. The court said there were sufficient materials to proceed against Pachauri under section 354 A, 354 B, 354 D, 509 and 341 and so it dropped section 506 of the Indian Penal Code. The court noted that there are allegations against Pachauri making sexually coloured remarks upon the complainant on several occasions and touched the complainant inappropriately, despite a clear expression of disapproval from her side. It also noted that he allegedly sent inappropriate SMS and whatsapp messages to the complainant. The court fixed July 11 as the date to supply copy of chargesheet to the accused. Pachauri is embroiled in charges of sexually harassing a colleague in The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). Earlier, the Delhi Police had chargesheeted the former executive chairman of TERI under various sections of the Indian Penal Code dealing with assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty, sexual harassment, stalking, criminal intimidation and word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman. The police have cited around 23 prosecution witnesses and several SMS texts, e-mails and WhatsApp messages exchanged between the accused and victim as evidence to support their case. 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. Despite being enmeshed in allegations of multiple sexual harassment, he was elevated to the newly created post of the Executive Vice Chairman on February 8, however, after severe criticism, TERI asked him to proceed on indefinite leave on February 12.