TERI harassment panel head who found RK Pachauri guilty quits

Ranjana Saikia, the head of TERI's Internal Complaints Committee who headed the 3-member panel which found its former Director General R K Pachauri guilty of sexual harassment of a junior colleague, has resigned. Saikia confirmed that she has resigned but did not give any reason for taking the step. The Energy and Resources Institute too remained tightlipped about it. "Yes, it is true that I have resigned," Saikia told PTI over phone. "No," she said, when asked whether she had cited any reason for tendering her resignation. 

Sources said Saikia resigned on Monday after which TERI is learnt to have reconstituted the committee. A research analyst at Teri has accused Pachauri of sexual harassment and he is currently on bail in the case. A case of sexual harassment was registered against Pachauri, a Nobel peace prize recipient, on February 13 this year.

TERI governing council had on July 23 appointed Dr Ajay Mathur, currently the director general of Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), as its Director General. Pachauri had also stepped down as chair of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Prime Minister's Council on Climate Change following the alleged incident.

He was recently allowed by a Delhi court to travel to Kazakhstan for a conference on climate change.