Bengaluru: A special court has dismissed Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer R Ravishankar’s revision petition challenging a trial court order taking cognisance of a sexual harassment and cheating case.The chief conservator of forest (development-Bengaluru) is arraigned as accused no. 1 in a private complaint lodged by a woman, said to be an office assistant. As the complainant also named RR Nagar MLA N Munirathna as one of the respondents, the revision petition was transferred to the special court for elected representatives.Challenging the trial court’s order, Ravishankar claimed that during 2018-19, the complainant met him as an environmentalist and sought help for organising environmental programmes and improving plantations. Several allegations were levelled against him as he refused to meet her demands.“I am an innocent person and absolutely there is nothing to suggest that I was guilty of committing the offence,” he submitted while seeking the quashing of the June 2022 order which had taken cognisance of the case. Special judge Santhosh Gajanan Bhat noted that the complainant had alleged the IFS officer developed a relationship with her by making her believe that he was unmarried, even though he had already been married.“It is narrated in the complaint, which was placed before the trial court, that the revision petitioner (Ravishankar) came in contact with the complainant through Facebook and friendship developed between them, wherein they used to chat with each other for a period of one year. The averments in the complaint indicate that the accused/revision petitioner Ravishankar addressed himself as chief conservator of forests and an unmarried person who needed friendship,” the judge pointed out referring to the complaint.
