Members of three Communist parties and other organisations staged a demonstration in Dehradun and submitted a memorandum addressed to the Chief Minister, demanding effective measures to ensure women's safety in the State in view of the allegations of sexual assault and exploitation made against additional secretary, Home, JP Joshi.
In the memorandum addressed to the CM, the CPI, CPI (M), CPI (Ml) and Uttarakhand Parivartan Party cited the recent case of an additional secretary, Home, being accused of sexually assaulting and exploiting a woman on the pretext of providing a job to her. They State that a police officer allegedly threatened the woman when she tried to register a police report in Dehradun due to which she had to lodge the FIR in Delhi.
The communist leaders have said that the allegations are very serious as not only is a bureaucrat involved but a police officer is also accused of trying to prevent justice. They have demanded that a high level inquiry be ordered by an independent agency into the allegations in stead of a police inquiry. The accused bureaucrat should be suspended and arrested without delay to prevent him from influencing the inquiry while an inquiry and action should also be initiated against the police officer accused of threatening the purported victim.
Raising concern about government apathy towards women's security in Uttarakhand, the left leaders said that the State Women's Commission has been without a chairperson for many months. According to the commission's figures, there are internal complaint committees only in 126 out of 400 Central and State departments in Uttarakhand.
The protesting leaders demanded that the formation of these committees be ensured without delay in all departments.