Customs Official Sacked For Molesting Foreign National

Picture courtesy Business World

New Delhi: A customs official was sacked by the government for allegedly molesting a foreign national from Uzbekistan at the Indira Gandhi International airport in the national capital.

Customs superintendent Devendra Kumar Hooda, posted at the Delhi airport, has been retired mandatorily after he was charged with sexual harassment and molestation, reported India Today.

The incident took place in May 2019. The government fired Hooda under Fundamental Rights Rules (56) after he was found guilty of sexual harassment charges. The investigations also found that he allowed the woman to walk away without being booked for entering India carrying two bags of contraband cigarettes.

According to the Department of Revenue, the Screening Committee, Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, had inquired the issue following Hooda’s suspension order.

The Review Committee finally adjudicated the matter and recommended the official’s compulsory retirement for ‘gross misconduct’, ‘sexual harassment of grave nature’ besides casting “acute adverse impact on the image of the department and lowering the morals of the officers of the service”, the website stated.

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