Nagpur: In a shocking development, a woman Motor Vehicle Inspector (MVI) has levelled allegations of sexual harassment and character assassination against Nagpur Regional Transport Officer (RTO) Ravindra Bhuyar. Subsequently, Maharashtra Transport Commissioner Vivek Bhimanwar has asked the Women’s Grievance Redressal Committee (Vishakha Committee) to enquire into the matter and prepare the action taken report within seven days, media reports said.
According to reports, in her three-page complaint, the woman MVI mentioned that she was posted in Nagpur City RTO on October 10, 2018. She has been working under Deputy RTO Bhuyar, who was holding additional charge of RTO. She was doing her work honestly and sincerely. Yet, he used abusive language and repeated obscenities against her in the public, the woman said in her complaint.
The woman MVI further said in her complaint that the RTO asked her to wait at the office till midnight with him though there was no work. He frequently passed inappropriate comments on her look. He cracked jokes that would embarrass any woman. He made objectionable statements that cast aspersions on my character. He said that she had sexual relationships with many men, and her husband has not fathered her son, the complaint stated.
“As I hail from a backward class community, and because of my caste, I am being constantly labelled as a low-caste woman. All the officers and employees repeatedly insult me and call me inefficient. Even after the office hours, I was forced to sit in the office. He used to ask me to drop him home citing that no official vehicle was available. Many times, he allegedly asked me to accompany him on a long drive. Whenever I refused, he threatened to implicate me in a bribery case,” the woman said in her complaint.
She claimed that her colleagues have been a witness to her ordeal, but as Bhuyar is a senior officer no one dared to confront him. “In private, everyone sympathizes with me but are reluctant to come out and speak openly against him out of fear,” the complaint added.
Unable to bear the torture, the woman told her husband and elder brother about the harassment. Her brother immediately came to Nagpur from Solapur on January 9, the woman said.
The woman MVI said that her brother confronted Bhuyar, after which the RTO requested not to bring the matter to the notice of the higher-ups. My brother then got Bhuyar to accompany him to our home. “He apologized to me in front of my family members and some colleagues. But as Bhuyar wields a lot of influence in the department, he can harm me. So, I filed this complaint,” the woman MVI said.
