Executive Vice Chairman of TERI, RK Pachauri has gone on leave on Thursday stating that he won’t be attending the convocation ceremony of the energy body’s education institute on March 7.
Despite sexual harassment allegations against him, the former director-general of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) RK Pachauri on Tuesday was reinstated as vice chairman, a post specially created for him.
Following his appointment, Pachauri who is on bail was at the receiving end of massive public and media outrage. He was removed from his position in July over sexual harassment charges filed by a subordinate of his.
The first sexual harassment charge came in February 2015 when a 29-year-old woman researcher lodged an FIR against the environment scientist.
Pachauri was charged under IPC sections 354, 354(a), 354(d) (molestation) and 506 (criminal intimidation).
Here are five good reasons why the tainted scientist should leave the energy resources body:
1. The first complainant on Wednesday in an open letter said that Pachauri’s reinstatement in the environment protection body made her ‘flesh crawl’.
2. And it isn’t just one woman, another victim too has come forward. A female staff of TERI has now alleged that she was also sexually harassed over a year in 2003. She said, “I had been sexually harassed by him and had seen him behave extremely indecently with other women at TERI too.”
3. On Wednesday, reacting to his re-appointment at TERI, 20 students who have recently completed their course at the TERI institute said that they will not accept their degrees from Pachauri during convocation on March 7.
4. Since May last year, numerous Change.org petitions have attracted support from people seeking his permanent removal from TERI.
5. He should take a cue from people like Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw who had quit the institution citing 'moral responsibility' even though she wasn't directly involved in the case.