The Congress party may be in a tight spot as another sexual harassment scandal knocks at its door. In an exclusive report, MyNation writes that Rahul Gandhi’s’ close aide, the ‘gatekeeper’ of his Twitter handle and the son of senior Congress leader and former Rajasthan governor Margaret Alva, Nikhil Alva has been charged with stalking and sending vulgar emails, following a complaint lodged by his neighbour.
The FIR lodged with the police on December 4, alleges that Nikhil Alva often sent the victim, vulgar and sexually coloured remarks through e-mails posted publicly on residents’ online groups.
In her police FIR, the 47-year-old complainant said, “Nikhil Alva has wilfully, deliberately, intentionally and maliciously posted emails on various groups with unwelcome sexual overtones using highly inappropriate and grossly offensive language despite a clear indication of disinterest from my side and advice to stop using loose expressions, obnoxious language in the emails.”
She had accused Alva of having sent derogatory emails to her on at least 14 occasions.
Alleging that Alva deliberately “tried to systematically assassinate” her character, the victim said he “abused” her with such expressions as “voyeur, fake, disgraceful, con, liar, manipulative, shrewd, obsessed, incredibly sick, twisted brain and psychotic lady.”
Alva is also accused of having threatened to defame the woman by publishing her emails in a book “Auntyji ki silly aur hasin emails”.
Though the victim confirms of trying to warn Alva of the foul language he was resorting to and that it was not acceptable to her, Alva somehow persisted with his terminology for the victim, claimed the complainant.
In his email exchanges with the victim, Alva can be seen calling the victim “Huggies-ji”, and that he was “very flattered by your obsession with me”, asking her to be a “little subtle”, said the woman.
Though Alva has rubbished the allegations, he has been charged with Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) that pertains to stalking. He has also been slapped with IPC’s Section 509 which refers to “word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman”.
Reacting to the development, Nikhil Alva claimed that the police complained lodged against him is false, politically motivated and it has no basis. He also alleges that the complaint against him has been filed in response to a complaint he had filed in November alleging financial irregularities in a housing society. He says that the woman is closely associated with the group he had complained against.
Today, a false & politically motivated police complaint has been filed against me in Gurugram that has no basis whatsoever. The genesis of this action is a complaint I had filed against financial irregularities in a RWA. The copy of my complaint and my response is enclosed. pic.twitter.com/lq38MBK97E
— Nikhil Alva (@njalva) December 17, 2018
Earlier too, an FIR was lodged against one Congress IT cell worker named Chirag Patnaik for sexually harassing a female colleague. In her complaint, the aggrieved woman had reportedly written how the Congress IT cell head, Divya Spandan, had then mentally harassed the victim instead of offering her any support.
The court had then taken cognizance of the case and summoned the accused Chirag Patnaik. Patnaik was arrested in July on the charges of 354A and 509 on accusations of breaching the woman’s personal space and indulging in immoral behaviour. He was later released on bail.
The charge sheet, however, described how Congress social media cell in-charge Divya Spandana had then refused to entertain the complainant’s grave allegations against Chirag Patnaik of frequent misbehaviour.
In October, another sexual harassment case came into light, in which NSUI chief Fairoz Khan had reportedly stepped down from his post following charges of sexual misconduct. NSUI is the student wing of the Indian National Congress.
In fact what could be seen as the biggest irony was when the Congress mouthpiece, National Herald, which was then busy pontificating about the #MeToo movement, audaciously chose not to mention allegations against its own editor.
Almost following Congress’ footsteps, National Herald had been shameless in its conduct by publishing several reports on the wave of women coming out with the sexual harassment tales while keeping quiet on the conduct of their own senior staff.
