Sexual Slur: Kendrapara Credit Co-Op Society President Dismissed

Kendrapara: President of the Kendrapara Credit Cooperative Society Pramod Sahu was on Monday dismissed from his post by Bibhuti Bhusan Patnaik, the Registrar of State Cooperative Societies. He appointed the vice-president of the Society as the working president in Sahu’s place.

“Sahu has been dismissed from his post to keep the reputation of the Credit Cooperative Society intact and win the trust of the people,” the Registrar said in an order.

A woman staffer of the Society had lodged a complaint of sexual harassment against Sahu with the police. Acting on the complaint, the Kendrapara Town Police had arrested Sahu on November 4 and produced him in the court of the Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate (SJDM), which rejected his bail plea and remanded him to police custody.

After the court’s order, the BJD in a release later in the day had said that since Sahu has resigned from the party a long time back.

This was followed by a show-cause notice issued by the Registrar of the State Cooperative Societies to Sahu to reply within a week as to why he should not be removed from the post of president of the District Cooperative Society under sub-section 8 of section 32 of the Odisha Cooperative Societies Act, 1962 for his immoral conduct.

Besides, the Registrar had also debarred Sahu from performing office work as the president of the managing committee and a member of the Society.