Bhubaneswar, Aug. 12: A woman home guard of Nandankanan Zoo, who has charged the park’s deputy director with sexual harassment, met the chairperson of the state women commission (SWC) today.

She alleged that the police did not conduct a proper investigation and delayed registering her FIR. She said though a complaint had been lodged with the Nandankanan police on August 6, it transferred the matter to the Mahila police on the same day and she got her FIR copy only yesterday.

“I had to call the Mahila police station several times during the past five days and visit the office of the deputy commissioner of police (DCP) to get my FIR copy,” said the woman.

She alleged that though she had mentioned verbal and physical harassment in her complaint, the police had registered the case under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and Section 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code. “The case should be registered under stronger sections of the IPC,” she said.

The woman had lodged a complaint with the police alleging that deputy director of Nandankanan Siba Narayan Mohapatra had tortured her verbally and physically.

Rubbishing the allegation, Mohapatra said the charges had been brought against him as he had tried to verify the complainant’s fake certificates that she had submitted to get the job.

She submitted a written complaint to SWC chairperson Jyoti Panigrahi today giving details of the nature of the torture she had undergone. Before lodging the complaint with police, she had on July 22 written about the incident to the SWC and higher officials in her office.

The chairperson today said that in her previous complaint she had not mentioned clearly the nature of torture. “In her earlier complaint, she wrote that the deputy director was harassing her by accusing her of producing fake sports certificates to get the job. In the complaint she filed today, she clearly mentioned that she was sexually abused by the senior officer,” said Panigrahi adding that the accused would be summoned and an investigation conducted.

The police said that registering the case took time as they had been probing the matter thoroughly. “We met the victim, inquired about the incident and then registered the case,” said a police officer.