Meenakshi Natarajan row: Telangana complainant alleges she's being stalked

A sexual harassment case involving a former Hyderabad corporator took a dramatic turn on Friday (June 12), shifting focus from a national political debate to immediate concerns over victim safety.

While the Supreme Court today refused to intervene in the rejection of Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan’s Rajya Sabha nomination, ruling that the remedy lies solely with the Election Commission, the local fallout from the controversy escalated sharply outside a Hyderabad court.

The complainant, a Telangana Congress worker who previously named Natarajan and other top party leaders in her complaint regarding caste-based harassment and threats, claimed she is now being actively stalked.

Police intervention

Appearing before the Nampally court, she spoke about people on the premises who were allegedly tailing her, even today, stating she had already alerted the Director General of Police about threats to her life three months ago.

While speaking, she also pointed to a man in a white shirt and black trousers, who was walking away from the public glare, as one of the accused.

Also read: 'I had no other option': Why a Congress worker filed criminal case naming Meenakshi Natarajan

The media has been trying to contact her ever since Natarajan’s nomination was rejected, but she has mostly chosen to remain silent. As she appeared before the court today, wearing a mask, reporters approached her. Visibly irked, she, however, spoke briefly and left the premises quickly.

The back story

In 2022, the woman, who hails from a backward class, accused former Narayanpet district president Kumbha Shivakumar Reddy of sexually mistreating her based on her caste. The former sought help from several people to address the issue but reportedly found no one to come to her rescue.

When her complaint with the police also did not fetch results, she approached the court in Nampally. Last year, she named in her petition before the court several Congress leaders, including Reddy and Natarajan, the Congress’s in-charge in Telangana.

Also read: Natarajan's RS nomination rejected: Congress protests 'murder of democracy'

The matter then snowballed with Natarajan, who the party nominated from Madhya Pradesh, finding her nomination papers cancelled after some BJP leaders accused her of concealing the case in her nomination papers. Acting on the complaint, the returning officer rejected her nomination.

(This article was originally published in The Federal Telangana.)