Intern allegedly murders Maharashtra magazine editor over sexual assault

A woman intern working at local news magazine in Maharashtra’s Thane allegedly murdered her editor for sexually assaulting her over a period of two years. The editor has been identified as Nityanand Pandey, who used to run a news portal and a magazine in Thane (rural) area. According to an HT report, the intern was facing sexual harassment for past two years. Pandey would delay her payments and demand sexual favours.

Fed up, the intern decided to take matter in her hands and confided in the publisher, who used to run Pandey’s magazine.

“Over the past two years, Pandey would allegedly sexually harass the woman at the workplace and she had protested against it. He refused to give her a promotion and coaxed her to have sexual relations with him,” Sanjay Hazare, police inspector of Bhiwandi police station was quoted as saying by the HT.

The intern and the printer was arrested by Thane Police on Monday. Pandey was missing since March 15 and later his body was found a bridge in Bhiwandi.

In the wake of #MeToo movement, the UN had conducted survey to understand the prevalence of sexual harassment among its more than 200,000 global staff. One in three UN women workers reported being sexually harassed in the past two years, predominantly by men.

According to the report, 21.7 per cent of respondents said they were subjected to sexual stories or offensive jokes, 14.2 per cent received offensive remarks about their appearance, body or sexual activities and 13 per cent were targeted by unwelcome attempts to draw them into a discussion on sexual matters.

Some 10.9 percent said they were subjected to gestures or use of body language of a sexual nature, which embarrassed or offended them, and 10.1 per cent were touched in a way that made them feel uncomfortable. More than half of those experienced sexual harassment said it happened in an office environment, while 17.1 per cent said it happened at a work-related social event. Two out of three harassers were male, according to the survey.

While harassment goes on underreported, India's crime records show that rapes of minor children had more than doubled between 2012 and 2016. More than 40% of the country's female victims were minor children.