Additional labour commissioner’s office rocked by sexual exploitation complaint

NAGPUR: A 23-year-old arts graduate aspiring for a guard’s job was allegedly sodomized by two persons at the office of the District Security Guard Board (DSGB), under the additional labour commissioner in Civil Lines. A complaint of unnatural sex was lodged at Sadar police station on Sunday by the survivor, who claimed he was exploited twice by ‘officials’, despite having a recommendation letter from social welfare minister Rajkumar Badole.
Sumeet (name changed), who claims to be a kin of a former mayor, told police that two persons, identified only as Thakre (52) and Kale (55), exploited him in the bathroom adjoining the DSGB office at Bhosale Chambers, and also later at Ravi Bhavan around a week ago.
Sumeet, who sports a nose ring, is a transgender. Minister Badole’s recommendation letter, a copy of which is in TOI’s possession, states that Sumeet is a transgender and an educated unemployed.
Talking to TOI, Sumeet claimed that he had no choice, and could not protest since he is in dire need of a job at present, with no place to stay or even sustain himself. Sumeet said he wanted a security guard’s job, for which he was visiting the additional labour commissioner’s office regularly.
Sources from DSGB and Mathadi board office said there is no staffer named Kale, but there is an officer named Thakre, who is also politically well connected. Some officers admitted that Sumeet had been a regular visitor at their office, and he would demand employment citing the minister’s recommendation. Following an online application, there had been also a recommendation letter for Sumeet from the commission’s head office at Mumbai.
Sumeet narrated his tragic personal tale to TOI, claiming the latest sexual exploitation was just another sad event in his life. He claimed that his father, who had ‘adopted’ him at an early age, was an officer of superintendent rank. After his adoptive parents passed away, he was driven out of his home in Wardha district. Later, he was disowned by the family, which owned substantial property. Unable to find a job to sustain himself, Sumeet claimed to be a pauper now with a bitter view of society and government. “I had to give in to the pressure of the two elderly persons at the DSGB. All I wanted was a security personnel’s job,” he said.
A team of Sadar police visited the additional commissioner’s office on Monday on the fourth floor of the new administrative building. The cops also visited the DSGB. Some cops, though, sounded irked by the non-cooperative attitude of Sumeet. An officer said Sumeet did not sign the FIR too. “The medical examination too has come negative,” he said.
Additional labour commissioner AK Pendse said that the labour office is no place for anyone seeking employment. “We will officially correspond with the police department once the query comes to us,” he said. He also said that the officer named Thakre has never faced any controversies or problems in his work life. The senior officer, however, admitted that government offices should have CCTV surveillance facilities.