New Delhi: TechMahindra has fired a diversity officer accused of making statements derogatory to homosexuals and Islam, the company announced in a tweet late Saturday.
The decision followed an internal investigation kicked up by tweets posted by a former employee, Gaurav Probir Pramanik, who is gay. Gaurav worked at the Noida office of the company between 2013 and 2016.
ThePrint was the first to report that Tech Mahindra had launched an investigation against the officer in question, Richa Gautam.
According to Gaurav, among other instances, Gautam had labelled him “effeminate” and implied that it affected his performance at work.
Gaurav alleged that in 2015, she asked a manager who was weeping whether he was “a gay” to be “crying like this”.
In one of her tweets from an account that has been locked to strangers since the controversy broke, she reportedly called Islam “a global pain”.
“I stand vindicated,” Gaurav told ThePrint after Gautam’s sacking. “I am grateful that the outcome came so fast. I have finally got some sort of a closure to the hurt and humiliation I was subjected to over an extended period of time.”
“My prime reason for leaving Tech Mahindra was the constant humiliation I had to face for being gay,” Gaurav had told ThePrint in a previous email.
Speaking to ThePrint, Tech Mahindra MD and CEO C.P. Gurnani reiterated the formal statement issued by Tech Mahindra on Twitter and sought to distance the company from Gautam.
According to her profile on the professional networking site LinkedIn, Gautam had been with Tech Mahindra since 2007.
Her alleged harassment of employees came to light earlier this month, after the historic 6 September verdict of the Supreme Court decriminalising homosexuality.
Three days after the Supreme Court’s Section 377 verdict, on 9 September, Gaurav wrote Gautam an email where he sought to call her out for her behaviour. In the email, which Gaurav tweeted after Gautam reportedly didn’t respond, he detailed the aforementioned instances of harassement.
Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra and Gurnani responded to the tweets, saying they would investigate the matter.
ThePrint reached out to Gautam through Facebook but is yet to receive a reply.
courtesy : theprint.in
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New Delhi (PTI): Multiple layers of barricades have been set up and a large number of police personnel deployed on roads leading to the BJP headquarters here in view of opposition INDIA bloc's protest on Friday against the arrest of AAP convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Besides police personnel, those of paramilitary forces have also been stationed at many places in Central Delhi, including on the DDU Marg and around the ITO area.
Kejriwal, who is in the Enforcement Directorate's custody, was arrested by the agency on March 21 in the Delhi excise policy-linked money laundering case.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday had said members of the bloc will demonstrate against Kejriwal's arrest as well as on the electoral bonds issue at the BJP headquarters on DDU Marg.
The INDIA bloc has been formed by some opposition parties, including the AAP, the TMC, the Congress, the DMK and the SP, to counter the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls.
The Delhi Police said prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), which bars large gatherings, have been imposed at the DDU Marg and its nearby areas.
"Barricades have been put up and security personnel will stop protestors from going towards the DDU Marg," a police officer said.
The AAP has been holding protests for the past week following the arrest of its convener.
Police said the road leading to the BJP headquarters from ITO and Minto Road is open but if required it will be closed.
The INDIA bloc has also announced a mega rally at Ramleela Maidan on March 31.