After sexual harassment charges RK Pachauri won't attend IPCC plenary meet in Nairobi

New Delhi: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on Sunday said its chairman RK Pachauri has expressed his inability to go to Nairobi next week for chairing its plenary session apparently in the wake of a complaint of sexual harassment against him.

“The Chairman of the IPCC, Rajendra K Pachauri, has informed the IPCC that he will be unable to chair the plenary session of the IPCC in Nairobi next week because of issues demanding his attention in India,” IPCC said in a statement in New Delhi.

This comes after the Delhi police registered a case of molestation and sexual harassment against him on a complaint from a 29-year-old research associate working in his office.

Pachauri, who is also the director general of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and battling a legal case, was to attend the meeting in Nairobi.

The IPCC said that one of the IPCC vice-chairs will conduct the meeting. It, however, said that IPCC will have no further comment on the issues demanding Pachauri’s attention.

Meanwhile, some leading lawyers and activists, including Vrinda Grover and Indira Jaising, a former Additional Solicitor General, and Prashant Mehdiratta, the lawyer for the complainant against Pachauri, held a press conference on Sunday to demand that his passport should have been seized by the police.

They also claimed that another former woman employee of TERI had sent them a letter complaining about Pachauri’s behaviour with her 10 years ago when she worked there. The lawyers also circulated the letter of the woman.

PTI