TERI chief RK Pachauri has filed a case against senior lawyer and human rights activist Vrinda Grover in a Delhi court. He has sought injunction and Rs 1 crore from Grover for allegedly damaging and trying to prejudice the ongoing sexual harassment case filed against him.
Grover earlier had made the statements public of two women who she was representing. The women had alleged that they were sexually harassed by the former TERI chief. However, neither of the women have lodged a criminal complaint in the matter as of yet but in their statements released to media through Grover, they claimed that Pachauri is a serial sexual harasser. They have also indicated their willingness to come forward as character witnesses in the ongoing criminal case against the former IPCC head, where a 29-year-old researcher from TERI has alleged he sexually harassed her for a year and a half at work. Character witness means the prosecution can use them to try and establish a certain character of the accused from past incidents.
Pachauri’s lawyer Ashish Dixit filed the suit against Grover on 5 April in Patiala House court, following which the court summoned Grover to appear on Friday. According to Pachauri’s submission to the court, there was no foreign national who was ever employed as a secretary to him in TERI. One of the two women who have alleged that they were also sexually harassed by Pachauri is a foreign national who said she was hired as his secretary in 2008 for a year, only to be suddenly removed after she warded off his alleged unwanted advances towards her. Pachauri, through his lawyer, has claimed that these allegations are false as he never had such a secretary.