The praises for Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s good governance and his weekly meetings with the people resonating in neighbouring Jharkhand resulted in a tribal woman alleging harassment by the Jharkhand police approaching him on Monday to seek his help.
Mr Kumar not only heard the woman, who came from Jharkhand’s southern Gumla district, at his janata durbar (people’s court) programme in Patna, but also promised to intervene so as to mitigate the harassment she claimed to be facing ever since she levelled allegations of sexual harassment by senior IPS official P.S. Natarajan in 2005. Mr Kumar said he found “strength” in her statements.
“Since the matter is related to Jharkhand and its administration, I have nothing to do with it. But since the woman has approached me, I would speak to the Jharkhand chief minister and, if necessary, write to the Union home minister,” said Mr Kumar after the janata durbar.
The tribal woman said, weeping: “I am being severely harassed by the Jharkhand police, who falsely claim that I am running a gang of extremists. Can I do so since I have 24-hour protection by two police bodyguards? I am a free woman in free India and I can seek justice from wherever I can”.
She was arrested in August 2010 after an arrested criminal in Gumla named her as part of the outfit, Jharkhand Tiger.
In July 2005, a sting operation carried out by a news channel with help from the woman had caught the then IG P.S. Natarajan in a compromising position with her in his residence. The scandal caused by the footage led to Natarajan’s suspension. He went underground to evade arrest and finally surrendered in court in November 2006. He secured bail the next month and currently faces trial.