Delhi court allows RK Pachauri to travel abroad, grants bail in sexual molestation case

Granting relief to the former TERI chief and noted environmentalist RK Pachauri, who is accused in a sexual harassment case, a Delhi court has approved Pachauri’s bail plea, and allowed him to travel abroad for more than a month.

Delhi's Saket court allows former TERI Chief RK Pachauri, accused in a sexual harassment case, to travel abroad for over a month.

— ANI (@ANI) July 11, 2016

Saket court under Metropolitan Magistrate Shivani Chauhan allowed Pachauri to travel to Mexico and the US between July 12 and August 14 to attend conferences and meetings, according to Hindustan Times .

Pachauri had moved an application through his counsel Ashish Dixit, seeking permission to travel abroad to keep some business engagements, which the court approved noting that the chargesheet was already filed and the police investigation was complete.

“In these circumstances, the accused is permitted to travel as per his itinerary, subject to furnishing of one local surety of Rs 2,00,000 to the satisfaction of this court and upon furnishing an undertaking that he shall appear in the court in person or through counsel and shall not dispute his identity at a later stage,” the court said, according to a report in NDTV .

This will not be the first time, the court has allowed Pachauri to travel abroad. Earlier on at least 10 other occasions, Pachauri was allowed to travel abroad on business engagements. In the order, the court noted that this was proof that Pachauri has on previous occasions kept to the conditions set out by the court.

Moreover, after the woman lodged a complaint against him, Pachauri had immediately moved to the court seeking anticipatory bail, following which the court had restrained the police from arresting him, according to The Hindu .

Pachauri had been on anticipatory bail since 21 March, 2015. Earlier, the court had quashed a petition challenging his anticipatory bail. On a previous occasion, the court has also dismissed “criminal intimidation” charges leveled by the victim against him.

Pachauri was chargesheeted in the case on 1 March and the court has summoned him as an accused, stating there is enough evidence to proceed against him under the Indian Penal Code Sections 354, 354-A and 34, among others. However, he has never been arrested in the case.

In a high profile case of sexual harassment at work place, India’s top-notch think-tank has been in the centre of much controversy, as three former women employees of TERI leveled charges of sexual assault against Pachauri, according NDTV . Following the furore over the issue, TERI had finally severed links with Pachauri, as reported in The Economic Times .

A former colleague of Pachauri had filed a formal complaint against Pachauri in February 2015 after which two more former TERI employees came forward with their statements, backing the victim’s claim. In a statement, one of the woman who had accused Pachauri of molestation had said that his inappropriate behaviour has been common knowledge and a subject of corridor gossip amid TERI employees, as reported in The Telegraph .