An Indian Court this week convicted Lalith De Silva, the Former Regional Manager of SriLankan Airlines on the charge of outraging the modesty of a female employee.
Metropolitan Magistrate Dev Saroha, at Patiala House Court pronounced the verdict through video conferencing and will sentence on November 17.
Lalith De Silva had joined the Web-Ex call and was online when the verdict was read.
While holding him guilty, the court said “It is proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused with the intention to outrage the modesty of the complainant uttered the above-mentioned words, as such he is liable to be convicted under section 509 of IPC.”
The maximum punishment for the offense is three years jail term.
According to the prosecution, on October 8, 2009, the accused called the complainant in his room and outraged her modesty by asking unappreciated questions.
The complainant said that immediately after the incident she made a complaint to a number of her seniors and waited for an action to be taken against the accused, who was a senior employee of the company. She further stated that realizing that no action will be taken against the accused she made a formal complaint.
Victim’s lawyer Ajay Verma said the Airlines were also not supportive of her and rather they tried to cover up the incident. The victim instead of getting support from the airline was removed from service, he said.
In a separate criminal proceeding, SriLankan Airlines is also facing trial for not complying with the Indian law.
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