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A 28-year-old woman IAS officer, posted in a Haryana government department, on Sunday, 10 June, accused a senior civil servant from the state of sexually harassing her for writing "adverse comments on official files".
Her senior, Sunil Gulati, Haryana's Additional Chief Secretary, however, rubbished the allegations and claimed that the woman officer had been advised "not to find faults with the files which have got all necessary clearances from other officials".
The woman officer wrote a post on her Facebook page, giving details of the incident.
She wrote that the male officer, her boss, summoned her to his office on 22 May and "threatened" her.
The superior officer allegedly threatened to file a complaint and "spoil her Annual Confidential Report (ACR) if she did not stop writing adverse comments on the official files".
The woman alleged that the senior officer summoned her on 31 May "and instructed his staff that no other person should enter the room".
“He asked me to tell what type of work I wanted to do, whether I want departmental work or time-pass work... And then he asked me to stop writing adverse comments on the files. He told me that like a newly wed bride, she has to be explained everything, and he was explaining to me in the same manner. His behaviour seemed immoral,” she wrote on Facebook.
On 6 June, the senior officer called her in his office at 5 pm and asked her to stay there till 7:39 pm, she claimed.
The woman alleged that the senior officer and some of his colleagues were now threatening her.
Another senior woman official "has given me verbal orders that I do not enter any complaint in writing", she claimed.
When contacted, Gulati said the allegations levelled against him were "false and baseless".
He said that in fact, he had gone out of his way to help her after she was posted in the department he is heading.
"We tried to provide all facilities to her. She did not even have a room for her office and I asked my staff to provide one. She was very well looked after by my staff," he said.
“It's my duty to train my staff. It's up to her to be willing to learn. If going to field troubles her, the government can transfer her. I'm ready for a probe, even a lie-detection test,” he added, ANI reports.
"I advised her, thinking that she was a young officer. I tried to teach her. I asked her to stop writing adverse comments on every file she takes up and told her that in some other department people may spoil her ACR," he said.
He also said that the woman officer had been "finding faults" with every official file and he had advised her that it was not appropriate for her to do so on the files which have got all necessary clearances from others.
However, the woman officer rebutted the claims made by her superior and said, "Whatever he is saying in his defence is not correct. I have given full details in my Facebook post... Let the CCTV footage be examined. All things will become clear."
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