A day after quitting as Chairman of UN’s prestigious Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), TERI Director General RK Pachauri has been admitted to a city-based hospital for cardiac ailment. “His condition aggravated suddenly a few days back and he was rushed to hospital. He underwent stent procedure in 2010 and has been under constant medical monitoring since then,” said Pachauri’s lawyer Shankh Sengupta.
Pachauri (74) was slapped with sexual harassment charges following which he resigned on Tuesday as the chief of IPCC. TERI, which he heads in India, had also announced that he had proceeded on leave “for the time being” but disclosed no reasons for doing so.
Prominent lawyers and civil society activists on Wednesday demanded the resignation of Pachauri from TERI and questioned delay in his suspension.
In a letter to TERI’s governing council, senior lawyer Indira Jaising and activist Vrinda Grover, among others, questioned how Pachauri was allowed to have the “extraordinary benefit” of going on leave alleging it adds “insult to injury”.
Pachauri, who shared Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 with former US vice-president Al Gore for work on climate issues, heads TERI where a woman employee has filed a complaint with the police levelling allegations of sexual harassment. He has been granted interim protection from arrest till February 26 by a Delhi court.