A PRIVATE electricity provider faced an alleged security breach last month when an unknown person circulated an email, through the company’s human resources ID, accusing an employee of sexual harassment. Police have filed an offence against an unknown person after the company, Tata Power, lodged a complaint with Powai police station on February 19. Police said the email was sent from the address of the HR department of Tata Power’s Strategic Engineering Division (SED) in Andheri East on February 13. Advertising According to the complaint, the email was addressed to a female employee who had recently got engaged to a co-worker. The sender, the complaint stated, alleged that the woman’s fiancé had touched her inappropriately and made sexual innuendos against her on numerous occasions. The complaint further stated that the sender wrote in the email that she was stressed and “did not have the courage to complain to the authorities”. The sender also wrote that she had not filed a complaint with police or the company’s internal complaints committee that deals with workplace sexual harassment. She also wrote that she did not complain because she did not want to break up the couple’s engagement, further adding, “consider this a wedding gift”. Police said the sender had initially sent the email only to the couple, but on February 13, forwarded it to 20 more employees of the SED from the HR department’s address. Advertising Police said the couple brought the email to the notice of the HR department. According to police, the company concluded that its email id had been hacked after conducting an internal investigation. A police officer from Powai said the sender remained unidentified as of now, but they were speaking to employees to know whether anyone nursed a grudge against the couple. They were also verifying the allegations of sexual harassment detailed in the email, the police officer added. Police have registered a case of gaining unauthorised access to the company’s computer system under the Information Technology Act and of theft under the IPC. A spokesperson for Tata Power SED said, “Tata Power SED has conducted a preliminary investigation into the matter along with local authorities. The mail was sent using public internet with a masked IP address due to which the sender could not be identified. The company has placed various internal control measures to appropriately restrict access to this generic email id.”

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