In a new letter to ministers Suresh Prabhu and Maneka Gandhi, she claims no action has been taken against Capt. Darryl Pais despite assurances from ministers.
New Delhi: The Air India air hostess, who complained of sexual harassment by a senior executive of the airline, has named him and revealed more shocking details of the ordeal she and other women had to go through.
In a fresh letter to civil aviation minister Suresh Prabhu and women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi, the woman claimed that no action has been taken against Capt. Darryl Pais despite assurances from several ministers.
“We earnestly hope that we do not have to take another route,” the new letter reads.
She said she is “shocked” to see that the AI management is still covering up for the senior executive and had also made the errant internal complaints committee (ICC) chairperson, who had allegedly told her, “So what, he flirts with me too”, the incharge of the in-flight service department.
The woman has also named the ICC chairperson, Aroona Gopalakrishnan.
Speaking of another woman, the executive allegedly said, she “needs a good hard f**k”; “Your a** looks so hot in traditional clothes,” among other things, the complainant said in her letter.
Responding to queries about the case, Gandhi’s office told ThePrint Thursday, “We had referred the matter to civil aviation ministry and they have taken cognisance. They have asked Air India to examine the complaint.”
Pais, the air hostess further alleged, used to abuse women in office, force them to accompany him for his drinking sessions, and would go around town telling colleagues that the complainant has become an AGM because of him.
The promotion of employees depended on what they, like the complainant, could do for him, he once allegedly told “a room full of people”.
Calling her experience, “a vintage classic case of harassment and intimidation”, she said that she was propositioned by him on multiple occasions, and was penalised by not being given any “decently earning flights” for not accepting his propositions.
On confronting him over why she was not given special flights despite being a senior, he allegedly told her that the higher management only wants “young and fresh hot looking women on the flights”, she said in the letter.
Pointing to the “near criminal breaches” by the ICC, she said the committee ignored the specific demand by the complainant and another woman to cross examine Pais, as mandated by law.
“After months of follow-up, we suddenly got a mail from ICC chairperson, saying, ‘ICC has concluded its enquiry, if you have any witnesses from serving Air India employees only, bring them in 24 hours or we close the case’,” she said.
Calling this a breach of the Supreme Court-mandated sexual harassment guidelines, the woman ended the letter saying, “The Prime Minister is focused on women and our development. How will women ever gain strength to remain in the workforce if this is how we are treated at work?”
Very unfortunate. The government may be pleased to make a test case and an example of this complaint. We are all aware of the rules of natural justice and not prejudging an issue, but the overwhelming preponderance of probabikity in these matters is of the complaint being genuine and of vested elements protecting the guilty.