States »SoutPosted at: Mar 19 2021 11:09AM Senior IPS officer facing sexual harassment charges suspended
Chennai, Mar 19 (UNI) The Tamil Nadu government late on
Thursday night suspended former Special Director General
of Police against whom a woman IPS officer has levelled
serious sexual harassment charges.
Police sources said the senior IPS officer was suspended,
pending inquiry.
Soon after the woman's complaint to the Director General of
Police went viral, he was kept under compulsory wait.
His suspension comes in the wake of the Madras High Court's
observation, while taking suo motu cognisance of the woman
IPS officer's case, as to why the special DGP, accused of
having made sexual advances towards a woman SP, had not
yet been suspended.
The Court also came down heavily on Chengalpattu Superintendent
of Police and a lower level officer for intercepting the car of the Woman
SP, while she was proceeding to meet the Home Secretary and the
DGP to lodge a formal complaint against the Special DGP and for
forcibly taking her car keys.
The Chengalpattu SP, while intercepting her, also coerced her to talk
to the accused IPS officer in a bid to thwart her from lodging the complaint.
The government after transferring the Chengalpattu SP to the Commercial
Crimes Investigation Wing, later placed him under suspension.
The State government was compelled to suspend the accused IPS officer
after the court observed that a person facing sexual harassment charges
must be suspended before proceeding with an inquiry.
Besides an Internal Inquiry Committee headed by a senior woman IAS
officer, the Crime Branch-CID wing of the Tamil Nadu also registered a
case against the former Special DGP, the former Chengalpet SP and
others and are investigating.
Since the Madras High Court was monitoring the CB-CID probe, the
investigating agency submitted a status report on the investigation in
a sealed cover.
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