CJI Gogoi alleges larger conspiracy behind sexual harassment charges

Woman writes to 22 judges, charging Gogoi with unwanted sexual advances, while he calls the allegations 'unbelievable'.

India's most senior judge has been accused of sexual harassment by a former Supreme Court employee.

Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi called the accusations made by a 35-year-old junior court assistant "unbelievable" and said they were an attempt to stop him from hearing important cases.

Saying judicial independence was at stake, Gogoi, 64, called a special session of the apex court after the woman wrote to 22 Supreme Court judges on Friday, alleging he twice made sexual advances in the office of his official residence in October last year.


"He hugged me around the waist, and touched me all over my body with his arms and by pressing his body against mine, and did not let go," she wrote in an affidavit seen by the AFP news agency.

"He told me 'hold me', he did not let go of me despite the fact that I froze and tried to get out of his embrace by stiffening and moving my body away," the document said.

The woman claimed she was dismissed from her job and her family had been harassed after she rebuffed Gogoi's advances.

She also said she was summoned by Gogoi's wife who asked her to prostrate herself and rub her nose at her feet to seek forgiveness.