The Delhi Police has lodged an FIR against a working member of the Congress IT cell. According to reports, FIR has been lodged against one IT cell worker named Chirag Patnaik for sexually harassing a female colleague.
#BREAKING – Delhi Police has filed an FIR against Congress IT Media Cell member Chirag Patnaik. FIR was registered after a woman in the social media team filed a complaint against him, reports @saahilmenghani pic.twitter.com/J9iS28IFIk
— News18 (@CNNnews18) July 3, 2018
According to reports, the FIR has been registered under IPC sections 354-A (sexual harassment) and section 509 (outraging the modesty of a woman) at the North Avenue police station against the said Congress worker. The FIR has been registered on the complaint by a former employee of the Congress IT cell who was a part of their social media team. The woman has reportedly alleged that she was sexually harassed by Patnaik and despite her complaints to senior workers and head of the IT cell on the issue, she was harassed further and was forced to resign.
BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi had yesterday mentioned the issue in her press conference. She had also stated there are several cases where Congress leaders and workers have been involved in sexually harassing and assaulting women and the party not only shields them but also displays hypocrisy of sharing ‘survey reports’ that India is an unsafe country for women.
In her complaint, the aggrieved woman has reportedly written that she even had reported to Congress IT cell head Divya Spandana but Divya, instead of acting on the issue, accused her of bad performance and continued mentally harassing her. The victim had named Patnaik as Divya Spandana’s aide who runs the social media office and the official Twitter handles @INCIndia and @INCSandesh.
Complaint against Chirag Patnaik of @INCIndia. pic.twitter.com/Da8GmeTgAo
— Jitender Sharma (@capt_ivane) July 3, 2018
Congress IT cell head Divya Spandana in her statement has claimed that they had not received any complaint against Patnaik from the ex-employee against Patnaik and they are now awaiting her response on their query over the issue. Without naming Patnaik, she stated that she and her team are in ‘full support’ of their current worker (Patnaik) based on their past experience of working with him. The statement also claimed that they do not believe the claims of harassment made by the victim.
In response to the recent allegations against one of our team workers by an ex worker, please read the statement below- pic.twitter.com/4LVa5Hzoxk
— Divya Spandana/Ramya (@divyaspandana) July 3, 2018
Several social media users have condemned Divya Spandana’s behaviour stating that this displays Congress party’s attitude of blaming victims and aiding perpetrators when it involves their own workers. Last week, NSUI President Fairoz Khan was accused of sexually exploiting women. BJP social media head Amit Malaviya has stated that the victim belongs to a minority community.
There have been several allegations of sexual assault and other crimes against women involving Congress workers in the recent past. In February a youth Congress leader Mirza Mozaim Baig was arrested in Hyderabad for stalking and harassing a woman. In Karnataka, a woman had alleged Congress MLA’s son Mohammad Nalapad Harris and his supporters of assaulting her.
