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Delhi HC reserves order on Pachauri bail cancellation, Magistrate allows him to travel with Rs 4 lakh surety

The Delhi high court on Wednesday reserved its order on a plea filed by a female research analyst who has accused environmentalist RK Pachauri of sexual harassment to cancel the bail granted to him.

Justice SP Garg posted the matter for order on 28 January.

However, metropolitan magistrate Shivani Chauhan allowed Pachauri to travel to New York and Guyana later this week for meetings, reported the PTI.

Pachauri’s lawyer Ashish Dixit had told the court that Pachauri would cooperate and be available to the investigating officer. The judge noted:

The accused (Pachauri) is permitted to travel, as per his itinerary as stated above, subject to furnishing of one local surety of Rs. four lakh to the satisfaction of this court and upon furnishing an undertaking that he will make himself available to the investigating officer as per her requirement upon service of notice on him by the IO.

Pachauri’s accuser had told the Delhi high court that he was “influencing” the witnesses in the case and a “free and fair investigation” cannot be carried out if Pachauri is allowed to roam free.

She alleged that there is “overwhelming evidence” that he misused the bail granted to him by the trial court on 21 March, 2015.

She had also contended that Pachauri is an “influential man” who has been the top boss of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) for last 34 years and was in active touch with its officials.

After the woman employee of TERI filed a sexual harassment complaint, Pachauri denied the charge but stepped down as chairperson of UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in February last year and proceeded on leave from TERI where he was its director general.

Later, Pachauri was ousted as TERI head in July and Ajay Mathur appointed in his place.

In early November, the woman researcher who accused him of sexual harassment, quit her job at TERI, alleging she was treated badly. TERI denied the charge.

Citing several SMSes, e-mails and WhatsApp messages, the woman said Pachauri sexually harassed her soon after she joined TERI in September 2013. She filed a complaint in February 2015.

Pachauri was granted anticipatory bail in March but was ordered not to leave the country without court permission.

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