Nandankanan Zoological Park (file picture)

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 7: A woman forest guard deployed at Nandankanan Zoological Park lodged a complaint with Mahila police yesterday accusing the park’s deputy director of subjecting her to sexual harassment.

She alleged that the officer made lewd and castiest remarks against her. The police said they had registered a case against the officer following the complaint. Sources said that the Mahila police and an assistant commissioner of police met the woman and questioned her about the alleged incident.

The police said that the woman in her complaint had mentioned that the deputy director had been harassing her for the last three years. She said that the man had been forcing her to have a physical relation with him.

“He was forcing me to have a relationship with him. He threatened to take departmental action if I refused,” said the woman. She alleged that her harassment began when she did not oblige to his demands.

“When time came for making remarks in the service book, he said that I had submitted a fake sports certificate to get the job. I even met the sports authorities here and they confirmed that the certificate was genuine. Still, he kept harassing me,” said the woman.

The woman said that when she opposed the deputy director’s behaviour, he demanded Rs 1.20 lakh for making favourable remarks in her service book.

The deputy director, who was on leave, said the woman’s high school certificate showed she had passed HSC in 2000, but the sports certificate was of 2002, which mentioned that she had taken part in a school sports event that year.

“The certificates did not match and she could not give any satisfactory answer for the anomalies. All her allegations are baseless and I don’t know why is she doing so,” he said.

The woman also said that she had taken up the issue with higher officials, but no action had been taken.

The woman is one of the two forest guards employed at the zoo. Although the police said a case had been registered, the woman said today she had not yet received a copy of the FIR.

She threatened to move the State Women’s Commission in the event of the police not providing her with an authentic copy of the complaint.