Bhubaneswar, Sept. 2: A woman who had brought allegations of sexual harassment and assault against a councillor, today claimed that she had spoken to deputy commissioner of police Nitinjeet Singh, who has promised to take action.

The complainant, who could not meet the Singh in person during her visit to the latter’s office here, has also accused Malay Mohapatra, the councillor of ward No. 54, of hiring goons who fired outside her house at Pandava Nagar in Badagada on Friday.

“The deputy commissioner was not in the office and so I could not meet him. But I spoke to him over phone and he assured me to take steps to arrest the councillor,” she said, adding that the accused had been evading arrest using his political clout. The complainant first filed a case against the councillor on August 29 and filed another case yesterday.

She said that Mohapatra had been putting pressure on her to withdraw another case, on the basis of which one of his friends, Debi Mishra, had been arrested on August 26.

Mishra was the business partner of the woman, who is the mother of a child, in a garment business.

“Since he cheated my customers and me and even assaulted me, I lodged a complaint and Mishra was arrested. But the local councillor had been threatening us since then to withdraw the case. Mohapatra even assaulted me and attacked me with an iron rod on August 29. Then, I lodged a complaint with Mahila police station,” she said, adding that though a case had been registered, police were not arresting him. She also said that clothes had been stolen from her shop by the accused.

The complainant said that Mohapatra, who had been threatening her, had sent some goons who opened fire in front of her house late on Friday night. She said she had seen five youths moving in suspicious circumstances around her house that night and the next morning they found empty cartridges outside the house.

“The wheel of my scooty was damaged by a bullet. I even lodged a complaint with Badagada police, but they are yet to arrest the accused person,” said the woman.

Malay Mohapatra said he was being targeted by some people who are using the woman to tarnish his image. “Though I had lodged a case against the woman, she has not been arrested yet. A group of women had also lodged a complaint with Mahila police against her but no action had been taken yet. Everybody sympathises with her because she is a woman,” he said

Police said since the case was sensitive with both parties lodging complaints against each other, they did not want to take steps in haste.

“We cannot arrest people on the basis of mere allegations. We are looking into the matter to get proper evidence to arrest them,” said a police officer.