Rahul Johri, the BCCI CEO who was conditionally suspended from his position from the last three weeks owing to sexual harassment accusations raised against him, is set to resume office as the three-member independent panel appointed by CoA has found him not guilty.
The CoA’s three-member probe panel, comprising former Delhi Commission of Women chairperson Barkha Singh and Lawyer-activist Veena Gowda, termed the accusations as ‘mischievous and fabricated’. Johri is now free to resume office but with a probability of ‘gender sensitivity counseling’ as suggested by Gowda, owing to his “inappropriate behavior” with one of the past colleagues during the Champions Trophy in Birmingham. She, however, maintained there was no case of sexual harassment against the BCCI CEO.
The press release of CoA stated, “Since there is no consensus between the two members of the Committee of Administrators regarding what action should be taken against Mr. Rahul Johri, the Chairman [Vinod Rai] stated that the natural consequence would be that Mr. Johri continues as the CEO of BCCI and is entitled resume office. Ms. [Diana] Edulji disagreed with this. However, the Chairman reiterated that Mr. Rahul Johri should continue as the CEO of BCCI and resume his duties, as a natural consequence.”
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The decision to clear Johri was not unanimous as Chairman Vinod Rai voted for Johri joining back while Diana Edulji recommended his resignation as well as counseling. While Edulji also demanded the extension of publishing the report as she wanted to study it, but Rai decided to open the report in front of the panel members as well as BCCI’s legal team.
Head of the probe committee Justice (Retd) Rakesh Sharma said, “The allegations of sexual harassment in the office or elsewhere are false, baseless and have been fabricated and manufactured with an ulterior motive to harm Mr. Rahul Johri.”
The women who accused Johri of sexual harassment were deposed via Skype in a meeting, which was attended by BCCI’s former Anti-Corruption Unit chief Neeraj Kumar, BCCI treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry, IPL petitioner Aditya Verma, and former Mumbai captain Shishir Hattangadi. A fourth complainant, who alleged Johri of inappropriate behavior, did not turn up for deposition. Johri’s deposition, which took place towards the end of the probe, was spread over two days.
The CoA report, which was completed in 15 days, would now be submitted to the Supreme Court.
