Over five days after a 23-year-old Hyderabad IT professional was allegedly sexually harassed by her colleague, the accused is still absconding. While the police have formed a team to nab the accused, 24-year-old Charan Chowdhary, Infosys - the company where both the accused and the survivor are employed - has now said that they have started proceedings against Charan.
The company has also claimed that the harassment was ‘not reported’ to them, thereby justifying the lack of action so far.
“Infosys takes every complaint related to violation of the Company’s Code of Conduct seriously. However, as this particular incident was not reported to us earlier, we have only just started our process. We are now investigating the matter and are working closely with the police to aid their investigation,” the Infosys statement said
Charan has reportedly been harassing the victim for the last seven months, by saying that he is in love with her and wants to marry her. On Thursday, he reached the victim’s house and proposed to her again. After the victim said ‘no’, he beat her up, due to which she sustained minor injuries.
A case has been registered under IPC sections 354 (d) (stalking), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation).
Under the Sexual Harassment at Workplace (Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, every organisation must provide a safe working environment for all women. The company is also supposed to train their employees on recognising sexual harassment, and reporting it to the Internal Complaints committee - and also impressing on all employees that the company follows a zero tolerance policy towards sexual harassment.
Infosys has not clarified whether they have conducted any such trainings in the past.
However, in the statement they have said, “Infosys is committed to providing an environment free of unlawful harassment and has a ‘zero tolerance’ policy against sexual harassment.”