Chennai: It appears that the Loyola College Alumni Association, Chennai dislikes answering tough questions with regards to a sexual harassment case filed in the Madras High Court by Mary Rajasekaran, Administrator of the Alumni Association against its Former Director Father Xavier Alphonse. It has blocked GoaChronicle.com Founder & Editor-in-Chief Savio Rodrigues on social media platform Twitter.
Mary Rajasekaran had filed a case of sexual harassment against Fr Xavier Alphonse in 2016. In her petition she has also named Loyola College Chennai and the Office of the Alumni Association.
In the grounds of the petition in the Madras High Court, Mary Rajasekaran has stated, “Loyola College Chennai and its Office of the Alumni Association has committed a serious offence by not taking action on my complaint of sexual harassment at the work place as required under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 and the guidelines laid down by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in Vishaka and others Versus State of Rajasthan and others reported in (1997) 6 SCC 241.”
The question GoaChronicle.com has been asking Loyola College Chennai and Loyola College Chennai Alumni Association is that when such a grave offence has occurred to a senior lady, a representative of their own college by Fr Xavier Alphonse why has such a prestigious institution and its alumni not fought for the human rights and the modesty of a woman of their own college.
Mary Rajasekaran was sexually harassed by Fr Xavier Alphonse because she exposed his corruption as mentioned in the Madras High Court affidavit, “I questioned the dubious methods used by the Director, Alumni Association Rev.Fr. Xavier Alphonse SJ, to siphon off amounts close to about Rs.1 Crore lying in the corpus of the Loyola Alumni Association to a personal Trust run by him elsewhere.”
In the affidavit, Mary Rajasekaran further states that keeping this vengeance against me the said Rev.Fr. Xavier Alphonse started harassing me and abusing me at every possible instance and sometimes behaved in a manner unbecoming of a reverend priest. I brought these matters to the notice of the management of the Loyola College who would then try to pacify me but failed to take any meaningful action and were indirectly shielding the nefarious activities of the said Ref.Fr. Xavier Alphonse.”
The affidavit further stated, “I further submit that inspite of this I was continuously harassed by the said Rev.Fr. Xavier Alphonse SJ, over telephone as well as in person at my office in the College campus and whenever I brought these to the knowledge of the management including the Rector of Loyola College Chennai herein I was dissuaded by them from pursuing any action against the said Rev.Fr. Xavier Alphonse SJ, including lodging of Police Complaint, by stating that name and goodwill painstakingly earned by the Loyola College Institution will be sullied if the matter is made public. They also informed me that steps are being taken to transfer Rev.Fr. Xavier Alphonse SJ, to some other institution by the management and I was asked to wait till then.”
After the case was filed in the Madras High Court in 2016 and court notices issued to Fr Xavier Alphonse and Loyola College Chennai there has been no response to the notices. The case continues to drag on.
Blocking the questions of GoaChronicle.com does not stop the truth from coming out. Loyola College Chennai and Loyola College Chennai Alumni Association must answer for their inaction on this case.
