Woman brings outrage of modesty charge against IIS officer in Odisha

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Oct 18:
Even before the debate has died down over an Odisha Administrative Service Officer (OAS) officer sending objectionable videos to a colleague through a messaging platform and then getting arrested for the act, a woman has alleged of an Indian Information Service (IIS) officer outraging her modesty.

The accused IIS officer identified as Prakash Das working with the All India Radio residing at MIG-61 Lingaraj Vihar in Pokhariput area used to allegedly send vulgar SMSes and MMSes through his mobile phone to a married woman who is his neighbour for quite a long time, sources said.

A complaint was registered at the Airfield police station on Saturday in this connection.  Basing on the complainant’s report, the police have charged Das for outraging the modesty of the woman and threatening her with her life, sources added.

Sources said Das had allegedly threatened the woman’s husband with dire consequences when he had inquired about it from him.

While the couple had complained with the Airfield police station in writing in this regard, the police had not acted on her complaint. Das had been allegedly blackmailing and subjecting the woman to sexual harassment according to the complaint lodged at the Airfield police station. Das had been a neighbour of the concerned woman for the last ten years. The woman has alleged that Das used to visit her house in her husband’s absence and subject her to sexual harassment.

“For the last four to five years he (Prakash) has been forcing me to keep relationship with him. He works in All India Radio. We have been staying here as neighbours for the last ten years since I came to Lingaraj Vihar for my son’s schooling. Initially he behaved like a gentleman and our family had a very close relationship with his family. Now he threatens to expose me if I do not maintain relationship with him. I used to remain silent for the fear of falling down in the eyes of the society but it crossed all limits in the last few days. He used call me from his phone and if I didn’t take the call, he used to come to our house in my husband’s absence and question me why I didn’t take the call. He has tortured me both mentally and physically,” said the victim woman to reporters while narrating her harrowing experience.

It was only after the couple met twin city Police Commissioner R P Sharma and apprised him of the matter, the Airfield police station on his instructions registered a case in the matter and recorded the statement of the woman before a magistrate at the local court on Saturday.

Later in the evening, Airfield police called Das to the police station and questioned him. However, Das has not been arrested yet.

“The matter is under investigation. If enough evidence is available against Das during our investigation, we will  arrest him,” said Bhubaneswar DCP Satyabrata Bhoi.

Das could not be contacted for his comments despite several attempts.