NSUI President accused of sexual harassment by female member, union to set up inquiry

The matter came into public domain when an email belonging to a union member, containing screenshots of conversation between Fairoz Khan and the complainant, was leaked on Sunday.

NSUI leader Fairoz Khan, Image: Wikipedia

New Delhi: A female member of NSUI , the student union of Indian National Congress, has leveled sexual harassment allegations on the Union's president Fairoz Khan. The matter came into public domain when an email was leaked on Sunday. The email belonged to a union member from Chhattisgarh. In the email, she accused NSUI’s national leader, Fairoz Khan, of sexual harassment. It is claimed in the email that after coming to power, Khan pressurised them to come to his residence or hotel late at night in return of influential posts in the Union. In the leaked email, many screenshots of conversations were found where Khan was pressurising the complainant’s sister to come to a hotel in Bengaluru in the second week of May. It was during the time of Karnataka election when Fairoz Khan, the complainant and all other people were in the state. The contact number in the screenshot belongs to Khan himself. The party has set up a high level inquiry committee to investigate the matter. According to sources, Sushmita Dev, Ragini Nayak and Dipender Hooda are part of this committee. According to the email, a complaint was made to the National-in-charge of the NSUI, Ruchi Gupta, among other prominent members of the party, but no steps were taken to resolve the issue. The complaint clearly states that there is no internal committee to take up issues regarding harassment. However, Ruchi Gupta has claimed that she did not receive any complaint and she has also made a committee to investigate the matter. According to sources, Khan has told people close to him that these are false accusations. The complainant, on the other hand, has refused to make any comments on the same. Fairoz Khan has been the Union’s leader for about a year. He comes from Jammu and Kashmir while the complainant is from Chhattisgarh and has been an active member of the party. She was temporarily made part of the national team as well.