DRDO's missile unit in Hyderabad reopens harassment case

NEW DELHI: Defence Research and Development Organisation’s ( DRDO) missile unit in Hyderabad has reopened a case of alleged sexual harassment that a researcher had complained was brushed aside by a top woman scientist at the unit.

Sources told ET that the case has been reopened after Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s intervention. The woman researcher has also been allowed to continue her studies, which she said she was forced to abandon after the complaint.

“We have allowed her to continue the studies,” Dr Mamtha Raghuveer, founder of the NILA NGO, who was on the inquiry panel, told ET. The researcher, in a letter to DRDO head quarter, had complained that she had been intimidated into withdrawing the original complaint by Advanced Systems Laboratory director Tessy Thomas, renowned as India’s ‘missile woman’ for her work on the Agni V missile. The researcher, who was on contract with DRDO, was terminated from service on September 30.