'Accused are hounding me,' says Tanur DySP VV Benny: Sexual harassment complaint filed with Malappuram SP

MALAPPURAM: "36 more chargesheets are yet to be filed in the Muttil tree felling case, a conspiracy was hatched against me to prevent this and the allegation of sexual harassment was levelled against me by a Ponnani native," Tanur DySP VV Benny told Kerala Kaumudi. A complaint was lodged with SP S Sasidharan on Friday seeking a probe into the matter. Benny is the investigating officer in the tree felling case.

VV Benny said six chargesheets have been filed so far in the case where the owners of a private channel are the main accused. Benny said that the accused are hounding him after he took over the case investigation. "This channel had reported against me for four days on the custodial death of Tamir Jifri"

I have nothing to do with the complainant woman. Not once have I called or seen her on the phone. I am 100% innocent. When I was Tirur DySP, the then SP Sujith Das had directed to investigate her complaint against the Ponnani SHO. A senior civil police officer usually records the statements. When the complaint turned out to be false, a report was given to the SP. Perhaps, there is a possibility that there is a grudge against me because of this," Benny said.

Defamation case will be filed

"I don't care which agency investigates the allegations of sexual harassment. I will file a defamation case both civilly and criminally on the allegations." Responding to reports that the complainant had a meeting with PV Anvar, Benny said that he was not aware of it and let everything be investigated.

Complaint lodged

The woman, who had levelled allegations of sexual harassment, lodged a complaint with the Malappuram SP via e-mail yesterday. The woman lodged the complaint based on the allegations levelled against SP Sujith Das, DySP V V Benny and Ponnani SHO Vinod Valiyatoor. Based on the woman's complaint, the additional SP has been entrusted with the investigation. The police's move is to investigate the conspiracy only if they find no substance in the complaint.