Pachauri not to be arrested till March 27

A protection from arrest till March 27 approved by a Delhi court comes as a breather for the former United Nations climate panel chief RK Pachauri , who is allegedly involved in harassment and stalking of a 29- year old research analyst . As reported by the Economic Times, The court also restricted Pachauri from entering the premises of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) - of which he was the Director General till a few days ago.

The court has been informed that Pauchauri had undergone a minor surgery on Wednesday in a private hospital and Pachauri's counsel Siddharth Luthra had requested for an anticipatory bail on the grounds of health. As per the ET’s news report, opposing anticipatory bail, the Delhi Police submitted that the attempt to seek bail was a "pretext" to escape interrogation. In the status report submitted by the police, it has been claimed that Pachauri is "not co-operating". Pachauri is "not co-operating" and has not joined the investigation into the accusations "which required to be investigated in detail",” the report has added.

Pachauri (74) had received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 on behalf of the Inter governmental Panel on Climate Change. The court has further directed him not to contact or influence witnesses or the complainant and to make himself available for investigation and not to go abroad without court permission, all of which are standard conditions imposed for grant of bail, as per the news report.

Though Pauchari has claimed on February 17 that his mobile phone and computer were hacked by some ‘unknown criminals’, the Police told the court, the accused made such claim just to counter the FIR registered by the victim . The Economic Times reported that Police has scrutinised his call records and found that SMSes and calls have been made form Pauchuri’s phone. Pachauri had claimed to be a victim of hacking after ET had sent him a questionnaire (on February 16) seeking his response to the accusations leveled against him.

(Image: reuters)