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Indian trader under probe for ‘sex exploitation’

By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS,

Kathmandu : Police said they were investigating allegations against the vice-president of an Indian business group in Nepal after complaints by a former employee that she was sexually abused for nearly three years.

Sanjeev Sharma, vice president of Aarti Strips, the largest manufacturer of galvanised corrugated sheets in Nepal, was arrested Sunday after verbal complaints by a former cleaning woman of the company that she had been abused by the official under threats of being dismissed and at times with money.

However, Sharma was released the next day after the woman failed to turn up at the police station to lodge a written complaint.

Aarti Strips, a unit of India’s New Delhi-based Bhushan Group, was started in Morang district in eastern Nepal around 2002.

It has had a bitter experience in Nepal in 2007 when political turmoil and a spate of strikes made the company think of moving base to India, according to the then CEO Roshit Unnithan.

Police superintendent Pradyumna Karki told IANS that Sharma had been released Monday after the woman failed to turn up at the police station and press charges formally.

The allegation was under investigation, he added.

(Sudeshna Sarkar can be contacted at [email protected])