New Delhi: Orissa Assembly Speaker Maheshwar Mohanty is in trouble. An FIR has been filed against him for allegedly sexually harassing a woman marshall in Assembly.
Twenty-nine-year-old Gayatri Panda on Wednesday alleged Mohanty used to call her to his chamber alone and even sent a car to her place late in the night. Panda also says the Speaker, who was aware she was unmarried, used to make lewd gestures at her.
"I am unmarried and stay alone. He used to send a car to my place at midnight and ask me to meet him alone. When I did House duty on the Speaker's dias, he would call me to his chamber. I can't describe what he used to do then. It's sad that a place where laws are made is a place that is not safe for women," Panda said.
However, Mohanty denied the accusations. He says Panda is under suspension for dereliction of duty and is trying to blackmail her way back to the job.“She is blackmailing me, 100 per cent. You must have heard what she said. She says I have been frequently calling her to my chamber. That’s not true. In fact, she was the one who came and approached me for an accommodation. I have never met her alone in my chamber during four years,” Mohanty told CNN-IBN.
The state Opposition on Thursday stalled the proceedings of the Assembly demanding the Mohanty's resignation.
As the House was about to assemble in the morning, Opposition members gheraoed the Speaker's chair demanding his resignation, making it impossible for Deputy Speaker Prahallad Dora to reach the chair.
Members of the Congress, NCP, CPI and JMM virtually laid siege to the podium raising slogans demanding Mohanty's resignation.
No proceedings could be initiated in the absence of any presiding officer in the chair while Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and other members of his ministry quietly watched.
(With PTI inputs)
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