New Delhi: A production assistant in public broadcaster Doordarshan has accused an assistant director general in the organization of sexual harassment. The complainant has charged him with making physical advances, subjecting her to obscene comments and harassing her by calling her to his chamber after office hours over a period of one year.
The complainant has alleged that her complaints to DD DG Vijaylaxmi Chhabra did not result in any action and instead a “hostile” environment had been created. Ironically, the complainant is herself a member of the in-house sexual harassment committee. Instead of punitive action against the official, she claims she was penalized by transferring her from DD’s Mandi House to the Central Production Centre (CPC) office in Hauz Khas.
Chhabra did not respond to calls or texts. When contacted, the assistant director general in question said the complaint was “false” and “engineered” as an “afterthought” to scuttle his chances for promotion as he was being considered for the position of director general.
“This is a malicious attempt to malign my reputation and that of my family. The complainant was upset because we did not recommend a documentary she had contributed to (on the Muzaffarnagar riots) for the national film awards. She complained to the internal complaints committee and was given a fair hearing. They did not find anything untoward. She then filed this malicious complaint as an afterthought,” he said adding that he had explained the circumstances to internal committee and police.
The production assistant filed a complaint with Tilak Marg police station on March 4 but an FIR is yet to be registered.
In her complaint she said that on February 10, 2014, she was asked to stay back after office hours so that the assistant director general could preview a documentary she had made on the Muzzafarnagar riots. “All this while he made me uncomfortable either by explicit sexual overtures and by lewd facial expressions,” she said.
She also complained about an incident on March 9 when the official misbehaved with her at IGNCA, Janpath where several DD employees were present for an official function. She alleged that he touched her inappropriately and when she objected he hastily left. “I was shaken and in such distress that a colleague who saw me knew something was wrong. I could not even tell him what had happened …,” she said.
The production assistant said that since she was being harassed in various ways since she had filed the complaint.
