Court allows ex-TERI chief R K Pachauri to travel to Kuwait and Somalia

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court has granted permission to former TERI Director General R K Pachauri, facing sexual harassment allegations, to visit Kuwait and Somalia to attend conferences from November 1 to 7.

Metropolitan Magistrate Shivani Chauhan, while allowing Pachauri's application, directed him to inform the court when he returns to India and make himself available to the investigating officer (IO) as per requirement.

"Accused (Pachauri) is permitted to travel as per his itinerary from November 1-3 to Kuwait and thereafter from November 3 to Somalia and return on/or before November 7, subject to furnishing of one local surety of Rs 4 lakh to satisfaction of this court and upon furnishing an undertaking that he will make himself available to the IO as per requirement upon service of notice on him," the magistrate said.

The court also asked him to file a copy of the travel tickets and intimate the court and the IO about any changes in his itinerary, in advance.

Pachauri's advocate Ashish Dixit sought permission to travel abroad citing his past cooperation in the case and said that his client needed to attend the meetings and deliver a lecture in Kuwait and attend a conference in Somalia between November 1-7.

However, the investigating officer opposed his application saying Pachauri had failed to give satisfactory answers but admitted that he had joined the investigation.

On February 13, an FIR was registered against Pachauri on charges of sexual harassment under IPC sections including 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354 (d)(molestation) and 506 (criminal intimidation).

The court had granted him anticipatory bail while imposing the conditions that he will join the probe as and when called and not enter the TERI office premises.

In the place of Pachauri, TERI governing council had on July 23 appointed Dr Ajay Mathur as its Director General.

Pachauri had also stepped down from United Nations' IPCC and the Prime Minister's Council on Climate Change.