Harassment case: Women IPS officers ask DGP to bring Spl DGP to book

A group of women IPS officers met Tamil Nadu Director General of Police JK Tripathy at the police headquarters on Thursday (March 4) in Chennai and sought action against the special DGP accused of sexually harassing a lady IPS officer, media reports said.

They also demanded action against an SP who had stopped her vehicle at Chengalpattu and asked her not to report the incident.

The incident occurred at night on February 21 on the Trichy-Chennai highway when the Special DGP was returning to Chennai after “VIP duty” in the Kongu region.

A senior officer told The Indian Express that the complainant was one of the district in-charges on the route to receive the senior officer. The officer reportedly asked her to join him in the car.

Related news: ‘Lady TN SP ran out of DGP’s car; was stopped by 150 cops en route’  

Sources said when the car stopped after 40 minutes, where the IGP (North Zone) K Shankar, DIG M Pandian and IPS officer Ziaul Haque were waiting, the lady officer rushed out of the vehicle and “literally ran out.”

She reportedly requested Haque for his car. She didn’t speak about the incident to any of them, sources said.

The next day the accused senior officer reportedly asked a colleague to contact the lady officer, but couldn’t reach her.

SP D Kannan and a team of around 150 policemen reportedly intercepted the lady SP’s car at Chengalpet and asked her to speak to the senior officer and return. The complainant, however, refused to do so and told the SP that if he didn’t allow her to proceed, she would mention his name in the complaint, following which he allowed her car to proceed.

The lady officer was able to file the complaint with DGP JK Tripathy and the Home Department on the afternoon of February 22, a day after the alleged incident. According to sources, the lady officer in her complaint alleged that Das behaved inappropriately with her in his vehicle.

Das was removed and put on “compulsory wait” by the state government on February 24. The same day, the home department formed a six-member committee to investigate the case.

The IPS association had also expressed solidarity with the lady SP, while demanding the formation of an inquiry committee.