Cumilla Correspondent

A female colleague has made various allegations including ‘sexual harassment’ against Comilla Health Engineering Department Executive Engineer Abul Khair. However, the engineer has denied the allegations.

The woman raised the allegations to the media in her office on Sunday morning. Later, the engineer called the police. The video of the incident has gone viral on social media.

Denying the allegations, Executive Engineer Abul Khair said that, “The woman has been ordered to be transferred to Patuakhali. After learning about the matter, she became angry and made these false and fabricated allegations against me.”

The woman alleged that, the Executive Engineer (Abul Khair) had been harassing her for a long time. He would call her to the office on holidays under the pretext of office work and make immoral proposals in various ways. The Executive Engineer was angry with her for not responding to these.

Moreover, he committed irregularities in the conduct of lotteries of various projects. She used the third and fourth floors of the office building as her home, although there are no rules for living in government offices like this.

The woman also alleged that, she was called to the executive engineer’s room on May 21 for protesting about the lottery for contracting work. There were seven other officials and employees from different levels of the office there. At that time, she was publicly insulted and harassed.

At one stage, the executive engineer ordered a staff member to hold her down. Later, when the staff member held her hands, the executive engineer put his hands on her body and sexually assaulted her.

The victim woman claims that she was transferred to Patuakhali within just six hours of the incident, which is basically an attempt to silence her. She demanded a fair investigation and trial of the incident from the higher authorities.

However, denying these allegations, executive engineer Abul Khair told reporters, “That woman locked me in my room. I called the police for my safety. The allegations against me are completely false.’

In the evening, Touhidul Anwar, OC of Comilla Kotwali Model Police Station, said, ‘The police went to that office after receiving the news. Initially, we have learned that the woman has been ordered to be transferred. However, if we receive any complaint about harassment or sexual harassment, we will investigate and take action.’