HCS officer arrested for sexual harassment

PANCHKULA: Eight days after a 27-year-old woman staffer of Directorate of School Education, Panchkula, accused a Haryana Civil Services (HCS) officer of sexually harassing her in his office, Panchkula police arrested him on Thursday.
Accused officer Reagan Kumar was called for investigation at the women’s police station in Sector 5 and arrested. He has been booked for sexual harassment and stalking under sections 354-A and 354-D of the IPC. Kumar had been the administrative officer of the society where the woman worked since April 4.

Assistant commissioner of police (ACP), Panchkula, Noopur Bishnoi said, “We produced the accused officer before the district court, which granted him bail. The next hearing is on July 12.”

The complainant had alleged that Kumar called her to his cabin on May 29 during lunch hours to type some official documents. She told the police, “While I was typing on computer, the HCS officer sexually harassed me. But I managed to get out and raised the alarm. The office colleagues came to my rescue. Kumar had also asked me for coffee a day before the incident, but I refused.”

She said Kumar had been following her for many days to the bus stop and when she told her brother about it, he started picking her up from the office.

Director, secondary education-cum-vice-president of the society, Rajiv Rattan had withdrawn work from the accused officer and forwarded the case to the internal complaints’ committee of the department on May 30. The committee is also inquiring into the allegations.