The Tamil Nadu government has ordered compulsory retirement for director general of police Rajesh Das a month ahead of his scheduled superannuation. In June this year, a court in Villupuram had convicted the former Special DGP for sexually harassing a woman IPS officer while on duty in 2021. The court had punished him with a fine and also awarded him three years of imprisonment.
The Case:
In February 2021, Rajesh Das sexually harassed a woman IPS officer in his vehicle, while providing security to then Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami during his election campaign.
They were travelling from Karur to Ulundurpet. Rajesh is said to have asked the woman officer to accompany him in his vehicle saying he would drop her midway at Perambalur. The woman officer alleged facing sexual harassment from him in the vehicle.
Retaliating the offensive of Das, she unboarded his car and left in another vehicle to Chennai.
The woman officer in the grade of superintendent of police drafted a complaint against Rajesh to hand over to the DGP. She was allegedly threatened to not file a complaint by Rajesh and other police officers at the time, but she went ahead with the complaint.
Who is Rajesh Das?
Rajesh Das is a 1989 batch IPS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre.
Beela Rajesh
A native of Odisha, he is married to Beela Rajesh, who is a 1997 batch IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre, currently serving as principal secretary energy department. She hogged the limelight when she was appointed as Health Secretary in February 2019. As the health secretary, Rajesh was instrumental in initiating Hospital Management Information System, under which patients data across Tamil Nadu would be digitised and stored in cloud for future reference and research purposes.She played vital role in minimising the number of dengue cases reported in the state in 2019.
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