In a shocking revelation, a complainant against RK Pachauri has said that the former director general of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) threatened her after seeing her talking to a male colleague in 2014. R K Pachauri, during a climate change summit told the complainant that if she ever got a boyfriend, he (Pachauri) would castrate him.
He said this after seeing her speak to a male colleague. Pachauri also forced a kiss on her, despite protests and also sent her a copy of erotic literature he had written, ‘Return to Almora’ and insisted that she read it.
During an official trip to Paris in October 2013, Pachauri kissed her despite her having shown reluctance to it.
Last week, amid strong opposition from women groups and students against his appointment as executive vice-chairman of TERI, Pachauri was sent on indefinite leave and former Competition Commission chief Ashok Chawla was appointed as the new chairman of TERI. TERI has also decided to appoint an external ombudsman to look into any complaints of sexual harassment in future.
On February 12, TERI asked its executive vice chairman RK Pachauri to proceed on indefinite leave, a move the women activists said “meant nothing”.
The Energy and Resources Institute’s move came in the face of flak from various quarters over making him the executive vice chairman, the first ever in TERI.
Pachauri was accused of sexually harassing a 29-year-old female colleague in 2015.
Meanwhile, TERI university acting vice chancellor Rajiv Seth told that varsity vice chancellor Leena Srivastava, on a sabbatical since August 2015, is likely to rejoin soon.
The university will hold its convocation on March 7.
After sexual harassment charge, Pachauri stepped down as chairperson of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in February last year and proceeded on leave from TERI where he was the director general.
