Tourism MD refutes rape charge, says it’s a closed case

Hyderabad: The managing director (MD) of Telangana State Tourism Development Corporation (TSTDC) Manohar Rao dismissed allegations of molestation levelled against him by a former woman employee of the corporation. ‘The allegations were malicious, and I reject them. I never misbehaved with any woman employee,” the TSTDC MD said.

The complainant was a contract employee in the tourism department in 2016, when Manohar Rao was serving the corporation as its executive director. It was in 2017 September, she filed a complaint in the local police station that she had been molested by Manohar on August 3, 2016, at the tourism department guest house at Nagarjuna Sagar.

Manahor Rao said, “If that incident took place as she alleged, why did the employee keep quiet for one year, and lodged a complaint on September 4, 2017?”

According to him, there was a protest by some contract employees of the corporation for equal work and equal pay in September 2017, that were not agreed by the management. “The woman employee who was one of the protesters, planned to frame me, and she went and lodged a false complaint with the tourism department and with the Nalgonda police,” Manohar Rao explained.
He added, “Based on the complaint, my superiors at the corporation ordered an enquiry by the redressal committee of the corporation that inquires into such complaints. Simultaneously, the superintendent of police of Nalgonda also ordered an inquiry. Both the tourism internal committee and the police inquiries established that I was with the tourism minister, and other department officials at the time of the alleged offence.”

Also, he said, the suite that was mentioned as the alleged scene of offence was given as 606, while he was in suite 604 at the tourism department hotel at Nagarjunasagar. The same matter was conveyed to the Telangana State Commission for SC and ST on November 7, 2017. “The Nalgonda police said the question of the occurrence of the alleged incident did not arise. The allegations are far from the truth and baseless. As such, no further action is needed in the above petition,” Manohar Rao added.

Manohar Rao, who took charge as the MD of tourism on March 12, 2018, said, “Because I filed a defamation case on January 30, 2019 in the Nampally court, she filed a writ petition against the police officials on October 4, 2021. The order was given on December 3, 2021, for this writ petition, in which the High Court pronounced the judgment, “The writ petition is being disposed of and the court is giving liberty to the petitioner to lodge a fresh complaint as per the procedure. The police will conduct the preliminary enquiry and proceed further.”