KSRTC suspends officer for harassing woman colleague

Mysuru: The KSRTC Mysuru city division decided to take up an awareness drive among employees on sexual harassment at the workplace. It was initiated after a woman conductor registered a harassment case against an officer. The accused has been suspended.
The employee, who is currently working as a computer operator at the Intelligent Transport System (ITS), registered a sexual harassment case against ITS division assistant transport officer Masood Ahmad at the Devaraja police station on Tuesday.The woman along with her husband Anil Kumar lodged the complaint of sexual harassment as well as an atrocity case.
The woman claimed that Masood, who is her immediate boss, had been sexually harassing her for the past few months. He had made sexual advances, requested sexual favours and caused her verbal and physical harassment. Based on her complaint, a ten-member inquiry committee, which includes officers from the labour department and KSRTC central office, held an inquiry during which the victim handed over an audio recording of Masood asking for sexual favour on the phone.
After hearing both statements, committee members concluded that Masood had indeed harassed the woman and sent a report to KSRTC managing director Rajendra Kumar Kataria who immediately suspended Masood and ordered a departmental inquiry.
Meanwhile, the woman alleged that a man called Shafiq, a supporter of wakf minister Tanveer Sait had called her and threatened dire consequences if she didn't withdraw the case against Masood. Sait clarified that he wouldn't support such elements and demanded strict action against the accused.
DCP (law and order) HT Shekar said a case had been registered against Masood and an ACP is heading the team investigating the case and searching for Masood who is absconding. Police also directed the victim and her family members to register a case against Shafiq.
Awareness drive
Meanwhile, the KSRTC city division has taken various measures, including the awareness drive, for its 2,200 male and 136 female employees to prevent the recurrence of such incidents.
Divisional controller K Ramamurthy told TOI the awareness drive will start this week in which employees will be briefd about the laws pertaining to harassment of women at the workplace, new laws on harassment and the punishment. "We have an anti-sexual harassment cell in our division which meets woman employees every month and hears their grievances. Every month, a report is sent to the central unit in Bengaluru. After this incident, an awareness drive was initiated which will infuse confidence among women employees. The department doesn't tolerate crime against women," he said.