India's Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi has been accused of sexual harassment by a former Supreme Court employee.

The 35-year-old woman has filed an affidavit alleging two instances of misconduct in October last year, shortly after Mr Gogoi was appointed.

She says her family was victimised after she refused the advances.

A statement said Mr Gogoi, 64, "totally denied" the "false and scurrilous" accusations. He has labelled them an attempt to "destabilise the judiciary".

The allegations were filed in a sworn affidavit that has been sent to Supreme Court judges.

In it the married woman, who cannot be named under Indian law, alleges the misconduct occurred on 10 and 11 October at the offices in Mr Gogoi's residence.

She alleges Mr Gogoi "hugged me around the waist, and touched me all over my body with his arms" and pressed his body against her.

When he did not stop, she says she "was forced to push him away from me with my hands".

The woman says Mr Gogoi then told her not to mention what had happened or her family "would be greatly disturbed".

The woman alleges she was transferred three times, then fired in December. She says her husband and brother were both suspended from their jobs.

In March a resident of the city of Jhajjar filed a complaint alleging she had kept money she had taken as a bribe to get him a job at the court.

Source: BBC

BDST: 1749 HRS, APR 20, 2019
SI