PANAJI
The investigations into the case of sexual assault and harassment of a junior female employee by three Income Tax officers is zeroing in on whether the Central Government agency had the Supreme Court mandated sexual harassment committee in place.
Top police officials said, there are credible leads that the panel had not been put in place and was hurriedly constituted when the current incident cropped up and on the day the First Information Report (FIR) was registered by the Panaji police.
Three officers of the I-T department posted at its office located at the EDC Patto Plaza have been booked allegedly for sexually assaulting and harassing a junior employee in the same office.
The three officers -- Maninder Singh Attari, Aditya Verma and Deepak Kumar -- are from Delhi, Rajasthan and Bengaluru.
All the three have been slapped charges under section 354 (A), 354 (D), 509 and 506 (II) read with section 34 of IPC and have been accused of harassing and stalking the victim.
One of the three, Maninder is accused of making physical contact and advances including explicitly sexual overtures and even making sexual gestures and hugging her.
The other two accused officers -- Aditya and Deepak -- are also accused of stalking the victim intended to foster personal interaction despite repeatedly being clearly told of her disinterest by the victim.
All the allegations are being investigated in detail, Panaji police said.
