PANAJI
In a latest development, the officer has written to the GU Registrar expressing serious concern over inordinate delay in 'conducting and concluding inquiry' into allegations of sexual harassment.
The officer has suspected that this delay might have led to the loss of crucial evidence related to the matter while also alleging collusion between the complainant girls and the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) to intentionally prolong the inquiry process.
As per details available with The Goan, the girls had filed a complaint against this officer on March 6, 2023 with the GU Dean, who promptly forwarded it to the ICC on the same day. However, even after a considerable period of 180 days (contrary to the mandatory 90 days prescribed under Section 11 of the POSH Act), the inquiry remained inconclusive. The respondent officer, in his letter to the Registrar on Thursday, stated that this extended delay raises reasonable doubts about malicious intent against him.
Given the nature of the allegations, which involve electronic communication and critical digital evidence, the urgency and precision of the inquiry are paramount, he has further said.
“Any prolonged delay would risk the loss of data that cannot be recovered or salvaged once the storage time limit is exceeded,” he said as he also highlighted that if those interested in destroying evidence can manage to postpone the commencement of the inquiry, he might have to suffer irreparably, as the opportunity to retrieve data would have passed beyond retrieval.
