The controversies surrounding Congress leader Kapil Sibal promoted channel Tiranga TV refuse to die down. After employees were laid off without being given their due and Barkha Dutt lashing out at the channel and the Sibals, now a girl has accused its senior producer of sexual harassment. Himanshi Gupta took to Twitter to make lewd WhatsApp chats public.
There are 200+ messages. I did say NO. I did STOP him. But he kept on messaging me.
He is Suresh Kumar S. He was a Senior Producer in @NewsHtn
He claims to have worked with @espn
for the world cup project.
Linked In profile – https://t.co/gTNEVbRY0X@BDUTT @IndiaMeToo pic.twitter.com/qf8yn8hxTK— Himanshi Gupta (@Himansh19399780) July 17, 2019
The senior producer of Tiranga TV, Suresh Kumar S is being accused of sending lewd messages and sexual harassment of Himanshi despite her protests and calling her incessantly.
In her tweet, Himanshi Gupta also includes a picture of Suresh Kumar S and his LinkedIn profile to prove that the man harassing her is, in fact, the senior producer of Tiranga TV.
From his LinkedIn profile, it is apparent that he has been working with Tiranga TV since its inception.
In the chats made public by Himanshi Gupta, one can see Suresh sending lewd messages to her and persist with multiple messages amounting to sexual harassment. He clearly asks her to have intercourse with him and follows it up with graphic details and lewd messages.
It is also seen that Himanshi then responds to Suresh and says that for her he is merely an experienced journalist and his messages are rather inappropriate.
After Himanshi made the details public, the Twitter handle of #MeTooIndia, that tracks complaints of sexual harassment, responded to her asking her whether Suresh persisted even after Himanshi explicitly told him that his messages were inappropriate.
To that Himanshi says that after her protest, initially he apologised and said he would not persist but then later he messaged and told her that he would not sleep and continue to text her.
Yes. Initially. He even said sorry.
But then he said “I will not sleep. I will keep texting” https://t.co/iplugNvZmZ— Himanshi Gupta (@Himansh19399780) July 17, 2019
On July 15, in a series of tweets, Barkha Dutt had alleged that journalists working at Tiranga TV were abruptly sacked, without any prior notice and they were not offered 6-months severance payout.
Barkha Dutt had also said that Kapil Sibal had threatened her of defamation suit for calling him Mallya. She had compared him with the fugitive liquor baron for not paying due compensation to fired employees and going to London. Dutt had said that she refuses to withdraw the comment, and will fight the case if required. Barkha Dutt had also accused Kapil Sibal’s wife of being insensitive to the plight of employees of Tiranga TV.
Later, in the evening, the crisis took an ugly turn when Kapil Sibal appointed bouncers at the Tiranga TV office to intimidate journalists who were sitting on a peaceful protest against the channel’s unprofessional conduct. Employees were apparently on an all-night sit-in dharna to demand a 6-month payout.
Barkha Dutt has now said that she would be initiating criminal and civil action against Kapil Sibal and wife Promila Sibal who promoted Tiranga TV.
Till the time this article was published, Barkha had not reacted on the Tiranga TV sexual harassment accusations.
