Delhi court to proceed against former TERI chief RK Pachauri in sexual harassment case

A Delhi Court on Saturday said there was enough evidence to proceed against RK Pachauri, the former chief of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), in a case of sexual harassment. The court was perusing a chargesheet filed by the Delhi Police against the environmentalist.

The Delhi Police had examined 23 witnesses, text messages, emails and WhatsApp messages between the complainant and Pachauri, before filling the chargesheet. He has been charged under Sections 354-A, 354-B, 354-D, 509 and 341 of the Indian Penal Code. All the sections pertain to sexual harassment, the Times of India reported.

A female researcher at the institute had filed a case against Pachauri in 2015, accusing him of sexually harassing and intimidating her. Pachauri, who was the chairman of the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2015, had to resign from his post after the allegations surfaced. He was also sacked from his position in TERI, only to be reinstated later in a different designation. He was also forced into taking indefinite leaves as the case drew traction from media.

The complainant had been reportedly forced to resign from TERI as she felt "let down" by the institute, according to the TOI. She alleged that she was treated badly by the institution, a charge that TERI denied, according to the Hindustan Times.

In April 2016, conflicting reports surfaced about his exit from TERI. The institute claimed he was sacked while Pachauri said he had decided to step down.

Earlier this year, a second former employee of the institute levelled similar charges against him.

Metropolitan Magistrate Shivani Chauhan, however, dropped the charges of criminal intimidation that the police had included in the chargesheet.