Inappropriate Touch

"Sir, I have a request" a new woman recruit told me. "What is it?" "I request you not to place me in Dr XXX's unit. Any other unit will do, but not that one." "Is there any reason for that?" I asked. "That unit head had held my neck once" the recruit said. "As for strangling?" I asked incredulously. "No, Sir ..." "Inappropriately?" I asked. I had a strong feeling it would be so. "Yes, Sir." "OK" I said. "I myself have noticed a lot of such occurrences involving this person and women of all ages. But I cannot initiate any action against this person until someone complains, not just verbally but in writing. We have a sexual harassment cell in the institute to deal with these problems." "No, Sir. I don't want to complain." I wondered why these self respecting women did not want to complain. Perhaps they wanted to avoid a scandal. A complaint would put a stop to this activity. But then I recalled there had been such a complaint about this same person in the past, which had reached departmental inquiry and human rights people too. The whole thing was apparently settled amicably apparently. The said offender did not seem to have learnt any lesson from that episode.