HI refers Kaushik case to police

Published>Sun, Jul 25 10 05:47 AM

Taking serious note of player Ranjita Devi's sexual harassment complaint against coach M K Kaushik, Hockey India on Saturday referred the matter to the Delhi Police for further investigation. The four-member inquiry committee constituted by the sports body had refrained from recommending any action, only proposing that the Sports Ministry should look into the case.

"The committee report fell short of giving any recommendations. So HI is going a step ahead and we are making a recommendation to SAI to take action," said Hockey India interim secretary Narinder Batra. "Hockey India feels that the committee should have recommended action," he added.

"We thought that the complaint was highly credible with specific charges and did what we felt right," he said. The inquiry committee, comprising Sudarshan Pathak, Zafal Iqbal, Ajitpal Singh and Rajeev Mehta, had suggested that the "case may appear to fall in the category of sexual harassment under the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India in the Vishakha judgement and Section 354 of the IPC."

Stating that only the police have the power to take action under the specified section, the HI has sought police action. "We have asked the Delhi Police to start investigation immediately by filing an FIR. The government can also take suo motu action," said Batra.

HI has also said that it will not avail the services of Kaushik and videographer M Basavaraj in future. The inquiry committee had suggested that since Kaushik had already resigned, his services were not needed with immediate effect. Meanwhile, the Delhi Police said they had not received any complaint yet. "We haven't got any complaints, so we can't say anything about it," said an official said.

Source: Web Search