Yogesh Kumar | TNN | Jun 29, 2016, 10.25 PM IST
DEHRADUN:
A senior woman scientist has filed a sexual harassment complaint against a top-ranking official of the Instruments Research & Development Establishment (IRDE), a unit of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in Dehradun. In her complaint to DRDO, the scientist has alleged that the accused official touched her inappropriately on the pretext of checking her I-card. A DRDO spokesperson confirmed they have received the complaint and added that “a fact-finding committee has also been formed.”
According to sources, the scientist had initially approached IRDE officials with her complaint but when she saw no action being taken, she went to the National Commission for Scheduled Caste (NCSC) in Delhi earlier this month. Jagjit Singh, a senior official of NCSC, told TOI, “The complainant had approached us with her problem. We have asked DRDO to look into her case and are now waiting for the response.”
Meanwhile, last week, IRDE officials were summoned by the DRDO top brass in connection with the scientist’s complaint. According to a DRDO spokesperson, “the next course of action will be decided after receiving the recommendations of the fact-finding-committee which has been constituted under a senior woman scientist.”
The case has jolted a number of people in the leafy campus of IRDE in the city where research is undertaken to devise cutting-edge gadgets like night vision cameras, thermal imagers as well as other electro-optical surveillance instruments for the defence forces.
Meanwhile, when TOI contacted the senior official against whom the allegations had been made, he said, “Nothing like what is being claimed by the woman has happened. I have come to know about the fact finding committee but I am yet to be called for giving any statement. I will present my version to them whenever called. 
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