At a time when Justice (retd) AK Ganguly and Tarun Tejpal are hitting media headlines for all the wrong reasons, a woman in Patna has lodged a case against a Minister of Nitish Kumar Cabinet accusing him of ‘mental harassment’. The Opposition parties have demanded resignation of the Minister following the police case but the Minister has rubbished the charge as “political conspiracy”.
The woman, Ratna Purkayastha who is an additional assistant director-cum-programme head of Patna Doordarshan has lodged the complaint with Shatrinagar police station charging Food and Civil Supplies Minister Shyam Rajak for mental harassment and intimidation at her work place. She has also filed the case against one of her office employee Navin Kumar Prasad, who works as programme executive in Doordarshan.
Earlier, the woman had approached and complained about her harassment by the Minister to the Patna Senior Superintendent of Police (incharge), BN Jha.
“I have been forced to lodge an FIR against the Minister and one of my employees after facing continuous insults and threat calls from them. It became unbearable when some five-six men came to my residence at 7 pm on December 4 and threatened that if I don’t listen to the words of mantriji I’ll face grave consequences”, said the complainant.
“Even the Minister himself had rang her up from his mobile phone to put pressure on her for the work done in favour of Naveen Prasad,” said Patna Doordarshan’s lawyer, Shruti Singh. The Doordarshan officer has even approached the National Commission for Woman (NCW) for support and help. “I hope I’ll get justice”, said the complainant.
The FIR said that the woman employee had been given additional charge of programme head on October 15 and the accused programme executive Navin Prasad was putting pressure on her to sign some documents which were invalid. “The Minister abused me and said that I’ve to listen and do whatever his brother Naveen Prasad asked her to do,” stated the complaint.
Meanwhile, Rajak has expressed “shock and surprise” over police case.
“Ever since I came to know about this police case I’m totally surprised and shocked. A lot of people daily visit us, with their problems and we usually make call for their work,” he said while adding that “now I wonder how can we work if such a situation prevailsIJ”.
The Minister also denied that he knew anyone by the name of Naveen Kumar Prasad.
But, the Opposition party leaders have refused to believe his words and have demanded his removal from the Nitish Cabinet.