A former woman employee of the Air Odisha on Wednesday alleged that she was raped by the airline’s CEO Santosh Pani.
She lodged a complaint against him with the Khandagiri police seeking justice.As per the complaint, Pani raped her twice two months after her joining the Air Odisha as a security supervisor in July 2018.The complainant, who currently works with the Air Deccan, is a resident of Kolkata.
“On August 10, Pani offered me a lift to drop me home and forcefully entered my house and raped me. He again raped me on August 12. On August 13, I resigned from the company and went back to Kolkata,” she said.
However, Pani refuted the allegation, saying the woman was sacked for having rifts with other staffs of the company frequently. “Many staffs of the company had even filed complaints against her at the Khandagiri police station. She even approached me to sack other staffs. As I did not accept her request, she has brought such allegation against me to take revenge.” Notably, Pani was earlier arrested in April 2017 on the basis of a non-bailable warrant (NBW) issued against him by a local court.
Earlier in June 2016, he had been arrested for allegedly duping Sandeep Ray, son of BJP MLA Dilip Ray, of Rs 40 lakh.
