The Haryana State Commission for Women on Wednesday said the case of sexual harassment against a senior IAS officer appear to be work-related harassment than sexual.

After hearing the additional chief secretary (animal husbandry), Sunil Gulati’s defense of the allegations against him leveled by his junior IAS officer, the chairperson of the Haryana State Commission for Women, Pratibha Suman said the officer has been told to improve his working style if his subordinates are having problems because of the same.

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“Though it will take abuot of a month for us to reach the final conclusion, but prime facie it appears a case of harassment than sexual harassment,” Suman told The Statesman.

After three hours hearing of Gulati’s side of the story, the hearing of the complainant female IAS was going on in the commission till the filing of this report.

Sources said Gulati denied the sexual harassment charges against him as baseless and claimed that at least one officer or staff member used to be present in his office whenever the female IAS officer was there.

He claimed to have tried his best to make the junior IAS understand her work so that she was able to take the right decisions while dealing with the official files, sources said.

The senior IAS said it was not appropriate for the junior IAS to take to Facebook in order to make such allegations and he would request the government to send her to the posting of her choice.

On the basis of media reports about allegations of sexual harassment made by the 28-year-old IAS officer against her senior, the Haryana State Commission had called the officer as well as the woman before it.

In a post on Facebook, the 2014 batch IAS had on Sunday alleged that the senior officer first called her to his office room on 22 May and questioned her about the adverse comments she had made in the files. She alleged the officer threatened her of dire consequences of its on her future as an officer and was even told that he would get her transferred in two months.

She claimed that on 31 May, the officer again called her to his office and told his staff to not to let anybody else enter his office. During this meeting, the officer allegedly told her to just sign the official files and not to make any comments in the same.

“He questioned me why I write on files the wrongs the department has done,” the IAS officer wrote on Facebook. She alleged the senior officer threatened to “spoil” her annual confidential report (ACR) “if she did not stop writing negative comments on the official files”.