Woman coach, who levelled sexual harassment allegations against Haryana minister, suspended
Chandigarh (PTI): A junior athletics coach, who levelled sexual harassment allegations against Haryana minister Sandeep Singh, has been suspended from services over alleged violation of conduct rules.
The suspension orders were issued by Haryana's sports department director Yashendra Singh on August 11. The reasons for the suspension have though not been mentioned.
However, official sources told PTI that her services have been placed under suspension over alleged indiscipline and violation of the service conduct rules.
"The services of the junior athletic coach are placed under suspension with immediate effect without prejudice," said the order.
"During the suspension period, she will be entitled for subsistence allowance as admissible under Rule 83 of Haryana Civil Services (General) Rules, 2016..," added the order.
Meanwhile, the woman coach alleged that pressure is being mounted on her for the past few months and said she will continue to fight the case even if her services are terminated. She said she is contemplating to move the court against her "unjustified" suspension.
When asked who was putting that pressure, she said the "media knows everything". "They have suspended me, but have not given any reason for the same. I have been pressurised for many months and this is yet another way to put pressure on me by the government," the coach said.
"And I know the reason why they have suspended me because I am not going back on this case...Let them terminate my services, but I will fight for my rights. I will seek justice from courts," she added.
The coach said that she has been doing her work with "great discipline and regularity".
"But I am not anyone's slave. I am not going back even one step. Let them even terminate my services, but I will fight for my rights," she added.
The coach further said that "if anyone is placed under suspension, under the rules he or she is given a warning".
"They directly handed over the suspension order. On Friday, I was made to wait and not allowed to mark my attendance in register (at the place of her posting). And no official of the sports department told me that I had been suspended. On Monday evening, they handed over the suspension letter at my residence," she said.
"I am a sportsperson. For four months my entry to the (athletic) tracks has been banned, what can be more painful for a sportsperson than this. My basic rights have been snatched by the sports department and the government. But I am capable to fight this battle alone. In the end, truth prevails," she added.
Sandeep Singh, who is presently the Minister of State, Printing and Stationery, is a first-time MLA and former India hockey captain.
He was booked under sections 354 (assault or use of criminal force against a woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354 A (sexual harassment), 354 B (compelling her to be naked), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on the woman coach's complaint last year.
Police had later set up a Special Investigation Team to conduct a probe into the case.
Singh, who gave up the sports portfolio after being booked in connection with this case, had then said that he has taken the step on moral grounds. He had claimed that the charges levelled against him by the woman coach were baseless.
The sports portfolio is presently with the chief minister.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Not surprised EC gave itself clean chit: Cong slams poll panel on Haryana complaints
Warns ECI of legal action over 'condescending' tone
New Delhi, Nov 1: The Congress on Friday hit out at the Election Commission after it rejected allegations of "irregularities" in Haryana assembly polls, saying if the poll panel's goal is to "strip itself of the last vestiges of neutrality", then it is doing a "remarkable job" at creating that impression.
The opposition party claimed that the EC's reply was written in a tone that is condescending and warned that if the poll panel persists with such language then it would have no choice but to seek legal recourse for getting such remarks expunged.
The Congress's response came days after the EC rejected allegations levelled by it over "irregularities" in assembly polls, saying the party was raising "the smoke of a generic doubt" about the credibility of an entire electoral outcome as done in the past.
The Congress said it is not surprised that the ECI has examined its complaints and "given itself a clean chit". The answer given to the question of the machines' fluctuating batteries seeks to confuse rather than clarify, it said.
"At any rate, the ECI reply is nothing more than a standard and generic set of bullets on how the machines function rather than a specific clarification on specific complaints. In short, while our complaints were specific the ECI response is generic and focused on diminishing the complaints and the petitioners," the Congress said.
In its letter to the EC signed by nine senior Congress leaders, including general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh, the party said, "We have carefully studied your response to our complaints. Not surprisingly, the ECI has given a clean chit to itself. We would normally have let it be at that. However, the tone and tenor of the ECI's response, the language used, and the allegations made against the INC compel us to submit the counter-response."
The Congress letter said that if the Commission grants a recognised national party a hearing or examines issues raised by them in good faith it is not an 'exception' or 'indulgence' but it is the performance of a duty required to be done.
"If the Commission is refusing to grant us a hearing or refusing to engage on certain complaints (which it has done in the past) then the law allows recourse to the higher courts' extraordinary jurisdiction to compel the ECI to discharge this function (as happened in 2019)," the letter said.
The Congress leaders, who had petitioned the EC alleging irregularities in the polls, said every reply from the EC now "seems to be laced with ad-hominem attacks" on either individual leaders or the party itself.
"The ECI's reply are written in a tone that is condescending. If the current ECI's goal is to strip itself of the last vestiges of neutrality, then it is doing a remarkable job at creating that impression," the party said in its letter to the EC.
"Judges who write decisions do not attack or demonise the party raising the issues. However, if the ECI persists then we shall have no choice but to seek legal recourse to expunge such remarks," said the letter signed by Ramesh, K C Venugopal, Ashok Gehlot, Bhupinder Hooda, Ajay Maken, Abhishek Singhvi, Uday Bhan, Partap Bajwa and Pawan Khera.
They also said that the "pattern" sought to be identified by the ECI in its reply is "disingenuous" as sometimes acting on complaints immediately is the key.
"If they are not redressed on the ground then they become redundant. And then the only remedy available is an Election Petition which is a lengthy process taking years to resolve. Thus, we approach the ECI with whatever information we have, and the ECI with the vast resources at its command, examines and reviews this information to see if the same is correct. Many times, the ECI has found our information to be correct. Other times, not so. But we do not name and shame the ECI for those moments after the Election is over," they said.
The Congress said if they were "bad faith actors", then they would never engage with the ECI to begin with. "We would focus on naming and shaming the Commission with examples from the ECI's own recent history which do not shroud it with glory," it said, adding that they would have never engaged in that case.
The Congress said it has sent over a hundred complaints against the prime minister and home minister, but "the ECI has taken action in precisely zero complaints, while calling our party president and former party president to account for their actions/speeches".
"We would point out how the ECI never published a dissent note, actively suppressing it instead, by a former Commissioner in this regard. We would point out that the ECI has almost always fought any move for transparency and increase in VVPAT verification numbers, with the same having to be ordered by the Supreme Court. We challenge the ECI to fact check the above since it finds the INC's misgivings to be based on phantoms," the Congress said.
In a strongly-worded letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, the poll panel had said such "frivolous and unfounded" doubts have the potential of creating "turbulence" when crucial steps like polling and counting are in live play, a time when both public and political parties' anxiousness is peaking.
The BJP retained power in Haryana winning 48 of the 90 seats in the October 5 assembly polls.
