Thread by @AsYouNotWish

I thought you all should know where have I been and what have I been going through. Going to put a series of tweets on how am I being hounded and humiliated for last 1.5 years for speaking up against a rich and powerful monster who sexually harassed me and got found guilty of it.

This happened at Rajeev Chandrashekhar’s office where I was hired as a consultant and his chief of staff was sexually and mentally harassing me from the day one. I took no time to report it, first verbally and then in written to Rajeev. Soon a committee was formed to investigate.

Soon after filing the complaint, everyone at office stopped talking to me and no work was being allocated to me. Owing to such a hostile work environment, I was forced to go on a leave while Abhinav Khare (Rajeev’s chief of staff) kept coming to office and using his influence.

The inquiry was stretched beyond the legal mandate which is 3 months for inexplicable reasons (probably cuz of state elections). The complaint was filed in mid Nov 2017, the inquiry concluded towards the end of June 2018. Abhinav Khare WAS FOUND GUILTY of sexual harassment.

During the inquiry, Khare kept trying to influence the committee by quoting that I was a communal bigot & even had a tiff with Ajaz Khan. You all know how Ajaz abused me on twitter for my pro-Modi views. It was nothing personal. In fact, a BJP neta filed a complaint against him.

It was shocking that despite Khare being found guilty of sexual harassment, company’s committee attached Ajaz Khan’s tweets in the report along with screenshots of my various other online banters with people who I disagree with politically and ideologically. They were irrelevant.

While Khare was found guilty based on evidence and was asked to tender me a written apology.

The observations made about me were based on my online banters. I immediately objected to them and asked the committee to either corroborate them or remove them. I got no response.

Observations are mere innuendos and stand no good in the court of law but they can form opinions so Rajeev Chandrashekhar’s org was now using them to blackmail me to settle the matter amicably as I’m an image conscious person and wouldn’t want anything that paints me black.

Next three months, July, Aug, Sep 2018, the organisation kept forcing me to come to the same office as Khare and did nothing to implement committee’s recommendations against Khare. How could I go back to the same hostile work environment where my harasser still works?

I had only four expectations:

1. Khare’s written apology as per the committee’s recommendations

2. Negative observations made about me removed or corroborated

3. Apology from Khare’s subordinates who testified against me and got caught as their accounts were ever-evolving

4. I made it clear that it was either me or Khare in the company and if the organisation wanted to retain him despite being found guilty of sexual harassment, I move on and take an exit.

I was happy to leave, provided I get an honourable exit along with Khare’s apology.

What happened next was shocking. A sitting BJP MP reached out to me saying he wanted to meet me and talk in this regard. I made it clear to him that I wasn’t up for any financial settlements and was fixed on Khare’s apology (evidence available). He said he will get back to me.

He soon got back to me saying that the company is ready for everything except for having Khare give me a written apology as I may share it with the media (evidence available). I assured him that I am a principled woman, fighting for my honour and have no such intentions.

He then went on to assure me that he would stand by me if I were to go public about this as the company was being really unreasonable here.

Another top BJP neta discouraged me from filing an FIR by saying that a slew of cases were coming my way. It was a subtle intimidation.

I told both the BJP netas that despite following the due-process, I’m still suffering and getting neither justice nor a closure.

In such a case, I was left with no other option but to initiate the criminal proceedings against Khare. Anticipating trouble, Khare got a gag on me.

Misusing the gag-order and knowing that I can’t speak, Khare kept calling me an extortionist on social media whereas the fact is he couldn’t buy me out. Various fresh troll accounts were set up to harass/malign me. My personal life, appearance, status, depression being mocked at.

Every day had become a challenge for me, my appetite and peace of mind were gone. I would wake up to Khare posting crap about me and I being helpless cuz I can’t even respond cuz he has got me gagged from the court. I hired lawyers to get the gag-order vacated.

We also initiated parallel criminal proceedings against Khare. My experience with filing an FIR can be read here

https://twitter.com/asyounotwish/status/1058214716491747328?s=21

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After knowing the names of the people involved, the woman inspector had no interest in taking down my FIR and did everything to intimidate me.

I religiously followed-up with the police after filing the FIR but was given no clarity. Suddenly, in the month of Feb, I got a message from the police saying they wanted my husband’s witness, the DCP however told me it wasn’t required so I informed the inspector of the same.

Interestingly, Khare never challenged my allegations but only the formation of the committee in the court, he got a gag on me praying that if I made the findings of the report public or spoke about them to any third party, it would cause him irreparable damage so he got the gag.

Taking advantage of the ex-parte gag order, Khare played the poor middle-class boy card on social media and kept saying that he will fight for his honour till the end. However, in the court, he wasn’t even able to justify the continuation of the gag & it was vacated on 8th March.

After getting relief from the court, I was hoping to get some relief from the police too but how dare I expect justice when I am fighting against the rich and powerful and that too somebody who works for a politician. B-Report (no crime found) was filed by the police.

A media person who visited the police station to get more details on why a b-report was filed despite the internal committee finding Khare guilty was told by the woman inspector, Sathyavathi that I was a habitual offender and had filed two other cases in Maharashtra.

I was reached for a comment and was shocked to know of the bias the investigation officer has against me. I called her and she accepted on record that she has said so. She told me I filed a case against Ajaz Khan and Mahesh Murthy too. I asked her how is it relevant to this case?

I informed her that Ajaz Khan hurled sexually-explicit abuses at me in public view and a BJP leader filed a complaint against him. And that I have no case against Mahesh Murthy. I had simply tweeted to laud the women who took Murthy to task.

In any case, how’s it relevant?

I told her that not only she was factually incorrect but it also didn’t befit a police officer to shame a victim and manipulate her case based on accused’s version and then sharing unverified nonsense with media professionals to further form an adverse opinion about the victim.

Have filed a written complaint with the DCP South on the inspector’s shameful conduct. The B-report has simply been based on ever-evolving accounts of interested victims who are still working with the company where Khare holds an influential position. Huge evidence concealed.

I am all set to file a protest petition in the court challenging the shoddy investigation done by the police but I want to ask all of you who accuse women of just ranting and doing nothing.

I followed the due-process, proved my allegations, did not compromise, what did I get?

I am a carefree outspoken woman, not perfect, friends call me naive and sometimes even too good for this world cuz I follow my heart and believe people easily. Will I ever be able to win this battle despite being wronged? I’m not sure but I’m sure that I will fight.

I literally have no life today cuz I spend most of my days running to lawyers, courts, police.... Please keep all this into account before you tell women to speak up cuz when they do, they are treated like untouchables. And it’s hard to fight it alone. It’s really really hard.

Interested *witnesses