Exclusive: Victim of sexual harassment in Congress under pressure?

Following the arrest and bail of Chirag Patnaik, senior member of Congress’s social media department, on Tuesday for allegedly harassing a former colleague sexually, MyNation has learnt that the Congress had made the victim sign a non-disclosure or confidentiality agreement as part of an internal investigation through a three-member committee.

MyNation was the first to break the story on how a Muslim girl had been allegedly sexually harassed by Patnaik, a close aide of Congress’ social media department chief Divya Spandana, at their Gurdwara Rakabganj office.

In an exclusive interview given to MyNation, the victim had narrated her ordeal, wherein she had also disclosed she had sent her complaint to party chief Rahul Gandhi, but to no avail.

The non-disclosure agreement (NDA) reportedly bars the victim from divulging the details of all that would transpire in the proceedings of the committee while it investigates the allegations of the victim. However, the members of the committee are bound by an NDA, too.

While the agreement has all the potential to keep things under the wraps to save the party from any further embarrassment, department head Divya Spandana gave a presumptive reply to MyNation.

“This is already the violation (sic) of the NDA,” she commented via a text message on phone, referring to how we got the information.

The victim, however, told MyNation on Tuesday that while she was happy that the accused had been arrested and that the police had finally started moving in the investigation, she also expressed disappointment at Patnaik getting a bail from the court.

“The police did not slap relevant and appropriate sections on Patnaik, which would have made a bail for him impossible. We are disappointed that he got a bail,” she told MyNation.

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