Rajendra Pachauri to face Delhi court on sexual harassment charges

Courtroom 506, in the south-east wing of Delhi’s purpose-built Saket district court, does not often sit centre stage in criminal cases of international interest. Its last appearance in the spotlight was three years ago, as journalists from around the world arrived in India’s capital for the trial of suspects in the gang-rape of Jyoti Singh. On Saturday, Rajendra Pachauri, former chair of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will face charges of stalking, intimidation and sexual assault of a former employee in one of the most high-profile cases of alleged workplace sexual harassment in Indian history. It is a case that is likely to be closely watched by scientists, media and diplomats, as well as the controversial scientist’s critics. The IPCC, which Pachauri headed, was jointly awarded a Nobel peace prize with Al Gore in 2007. Now he is facing charges that he harassed a 29-year-old former employee who worked for him at the Energy Resources Institute (Teri), based in New Delhi. With a high-profile figure, prominent in national and international media, at its centre, the case has become a symbol of women’s struggle to speak out against sexual assault and harassment in the workplace in India, where abuses against women are often hidden. The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, says Pachauri, 75, made sexual advances to her soon after she joined Teri in late 2013. A string of emails, texts and WhatsApp messages, which reportedly contain poems and declarations of love, have been submitted to the police as evidence. In February 2015, Delhi police filed the first report against Pachauri, setting in motion a legal process that has made headlines around the world. Since then, two other women, both former employees of Teri, have come forward to make public statements accusing Pachauri of similar behaviour. One of the women, who worked at Teri in 2003, filed a police report in 2015, but is yet to hear if police will press charges against him based on her statements. The third woman to come forward, who is not an Indian national, made a public statement in March, claiming Pachauri had made unwanted sexual advances towards her when she worked at Teri in 2008, including allegedly coming to her home with a bouquet of roses when she had taken a day of sick leave. She claims her contract was terminated early because she tried to stop his advances. On the eve of the hearing, Pachauri announced he was stepping down from his role at Teri “to move away and get engaged in other interests which I have harboured over the past few years for activities at the global level”. “I have had the good fortune of leading Teri for three decades and a half and have received the priceless contribution from thousands of colleagues over the years in building up this institute to the level of an outstanding organisation,” he said in a statement on Friday. A report in the Hindu newspaper earlier this week suggested the governing council at Teri had decided not to renew his employment contract, which ended on 31 March this year. Pachauri has denied allegations of sexual harassment. He disputed the origins of the messages in a controversial interview published by the Observer in March. In a series of emails, he suggested his email accounts had been hacked, and that allegations against him were part of a conspiracy to discredit him because of his environmental work. Pachauri had first made claims that his account was hacked by “unknown cyber criminals” when the initial police report was filed in 2015. However, Delhi police found no evidence to support his claims. In response to the Observer interview, the complainant’s lawyer, Prashant Mendiratta, said her client was “extremely hurt at the irresponsible manner in which the statements were made”. Vrinda Grover, a lawyer who is representing the two women who have since come forward, said: “This is a case of a man who has been in a position of power, and has repeatedly abused his position.” She dismissed his claims of hacking as “wild and baseless”. Grover added: “There are many, many women who don’t speak out because they see what the women who do go public face. They see that she has to face hostility, severe harassment; she loses her job, she’s maligned.” When allegations against him first emerged, Pachauri made attempts to prevent newspapers from reporting his name. In 2015, he won a gagging order against the Economic Times, forcing the newspaper to remove temporarily from its website an article naming him. Pachauri has also argued in court that newspapers should be restricted to using smaller photographs of him to accompany articles. Pachauri stepped down from his role on the UN panel shortly after the first police report was filed but, until this week’s announcement, had held on to his position at Teri. The complainant said she was forced to leave her job in November, claiming in her resignation letter that the “organisation has treated me in the worst possible manner”. Earlier this year, Pachauri was promoted to vice-chairman, a role created specially for him, sparking anger. Two days later, the woman filed a petition to the high court, alleging Pachauri was “exercising influence” on Teri officials to try to settle the sexual harassment case out of court. Pachauri was allowed to continue his work at Teri for months after the first woman came forward, and Grover alleged that “during [the] investigation, access to servers at Teri was made extremely difficult for the police”. In a statement to the Guardian, a Teri spokesperson said: “This matter is currently under investigation. We would like to restate that Teri has and will continue to fully cooperate with the investigating agencies and courts whenever asked to do so.” Pachauri’s lawyer, Ashish Dixit, said there was “nothing on record to suggest that [Pachauri] had influenced witnesses or any other person related to the present case or interfered in the investigation”. Police formally pressed charges against Pachauri in March, a year after the first police report was filed. They cited 23 witnesses and a number of messages sent to the 29-year-old woman by Pachauri as evidence of sexual harassment. The statements made by the second woman, one of Grover’s clients, were filed to police in 2015, and three reminders of that statement have been sent to authorities since. Her accusations have not been included on the charge sheet. The deputy commissioner of police, Prem Nath, who is heading Pachauri’s case, said he was unable to comment while proceedings were ongoing. Dixit said the allegations by Grover’s clients were part of “an orchestrated attempt to create a negative perception against Dr Pachauri and prejudice the case in court”. The allegations by the two other women, one of whom labelled Pachauri a “serial sexual harasser”, raised questions about whether there was any misconduct by Pachauri during his time as chair of the IPCC. The UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said: “We [are] aware of these new allegations but, from what we understand, they took place in relation to Mr Pachauri’s institute. The UN has no authority nor any jurisdiction to investigate these issues.” • This article was amended on 22 April 2016. An earlier version described Rajendra Pachauri incorrectly as “one of the world’s leading climate scientists”; while he chaired the IPCC, a panel of climate scientists, he is not a climate scientist himself.