#MeToo: CoA forms three-member panel to probe into allegations against Rahul Johri

The Committee of Administrators on Thursday formed an independent committee comprising of three members to probe into the allegations of sexual harassment made against BCCI CEO Rahul Johri.

CoA head Vinod Rai wanted the formation of the committee while Diana Edulji had called for Johri’s resignation or the termination of his contract. But a three-person panel comprising of the likes of former Allahabad High Court judge Justice Rakesh Sharma, former Chairperson of the Delhi Commission for Women Barkha Singh and former CBI director PC Sharma.

A press release from the CoA also states that this independent committee has been given a time period of 15 days to submit its report based on their own investigation. Meanwhile, Johri would “continue to remain on leave until the above independent committee submits its report and the same is acted upon.”

Also read: Top BCCI officials hit out at CoA as Rahul Johri’s deadline for response gets over

There was, however, more trouble for Johri as the Supreme Court appointed CoA has received appeals from seven state associations-Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Goa, Gujarat, Saurashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka to take action against Johri.

The Tamil Nadu and Gujarat state associations have even disallowed the entry of Johri into their premises until he is cleared of all the allegations by the independent panel.

Claims of sexual harassment were made against Johri by an unnamed woman on Twitter who had alleged that the BCCI CEO sexually harassed him on the pretext of offering a job.

But Johri had brushed aside all such claims in his explanation submitted to the CoA where he stated, “the incident referred to in the allegations ever took place.”

Image credit-The Print