Sexual harassment slur on banker

Bhubaneswar: The Commissionerate Police is looking for the manager of a private bank here after its women employees lodged a complaint against him accusing him of sexually harassing them for past several months.

The accused K. Surendra of Andhra Pradesh is now on the run after an FIR was lodged at the Sahid Nagar police station two days back. In the FIR, the women clerical staff of the bank have alleged that their branch head was sexually harassing them as well as other female employees.

“Surendra frequently calls us to his chamber and touches us inappropriately. His words always have a double meaning during conversation,” one of the complainants said. “Even after complaining to the HR department about this, the concerned officials did not listen to our complaint,” she added.

“After complaining to the authorities about Surendra’s behavior with the female employees, HR manager of the bank Mohan Krishnan came to Bhubaneswar and conducted an inquiry into the matter. However, instead of taking action against the branch head, he threatened the female employees to keep their mouth shut or face dire consequences,” another complaint said.

Meanwhile, the bank, in a statement to the media, has said that an internal inquiry has been initiated and it will maintain zero-tolerance policy on the matter.