New Delhi: The woman researcher, who levelled charges of sexual harassment against environmental scientist R.K. Pachauri, has quit her job at The Energy Research Institute (TERI).
She also accused the think tank of treating her “in the worst possible manner” and “failing to uphold my interests as an employee”.
“Your organisation has treated me in the worst possible manner. TERI failed to uphold my interests as an employee, let alone protecting them,” the 29-year-old woman said in her resignation letter.
In February this year, the woman complained to police that Pachauri, the 75-year-old environmental scientist, began harassing her soon after she joined TERI.
The researcher accused him of harassing her through inappropriate e-mails, text and WhatsApp messages. Pachauri denied the allegations, saying his e-mail and mobile phone were hacked.
“The organisation has instead protected Pachauri and provided him with full immunity, despite being held guilty of sexual harassment at the work place by your own inquiry committee,” she said, adding: “The governing council too let me down in an unprecedented way. The council could not even suspend a man pending inquiry and took no action despite the indictment.”
“You also created a hostile environment for me which has only escalated and showed no signs of subsiding whatsoever,” she said in her letter.
She alleged that her work profile was changed and the organisation “played deaf” to her request for not to do so. “I was given zero explanation of taking such an action and none of my e-mails/requests were heeded to. I only got vague responses…”
“I refuse to be associated with an organisation such as yours for the way you have mistreated me, for not standing by the law, for not having respect for my capabilities, for doing nothing to ensure that my career is not harmed and instead harmed me mentally, professionally and economically,” she said.
Pachauri was ousted from his post as head of TERI in July and Ajay Mathur was appointed the director general in his place. He had also stepped down from United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change.