Suspended DGP Rajesh Das Served Chargesheet In Sexual Harassment Case

Chennai: The Chief Judicial Magistrate Court, Villupuram, has served copies of the ‘400 pages long’ chargesheet to suspended Special Director General of Police (Law and Order) Rajesh Das and suspended Chengalpattu SP D Kannan in connection with a case pertaining to sexual harassment of a woman SP in February this year.

The woman IPS officer had accused Das of behaving inappropriately with her in his vehicle on February 22. The SP had allegedly waylaid her while she was on her way to Chennai to lodge a complaint.

The incident reportedly took place while the woman officer was on duty during former Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami’s visit to some districts in central Tamil Nadu.

The duo had appeared in the court on Monday, 10 days after CB-CID filed chargesheet against the police officers in the sexual harassment case.

The court has posted the next hearing to August 16.

A senior officer told the Hindustan Times that the CB-CID has recommended departmental action against four others – the then inspector general of the central zone, the former deputy inspector general of Tiruchi Range, the then automation superintendent, and the former deputy commissioner, headquarters.

After taking over the case in March, the CB-CID had registered an FIR against the former Special DGP under Sections 354A (sexual harassment), 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), and 506 (1) criminal intimidation of the Indian Penal Code, and Section 4 of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act, 2002, The Hindu reported.

On August 3, the Madras High Court had directed the Villupuram court to conclude the trial by December 20.