Judge accused of harassing attender

VISAKKHAPATNAM: High Court judge G Raghuram on Saturday recorded the statement of an attender at a district court here who lodged a complaint against district judge K Geddanna.The High Court also recorded the statements of a cook and a sweeper working at the residence of the said judge. The complainant, Papu Venkateswara Rao, was appointed as attender of the district court here in May this year on the death of his father Satyanarayana, who was working as a court process server at the same court, in December last. Rao alleged that soon after his appointment as attender, Geddanna and his wife started harassing him physically and mentally though he was diligent in doing household chores including cleaning of toilets. Though he was efficient in his duties, Geddanna marked him absent in the attendance register, he said and further alleged that Geddanna’s wife had abused him and removed him from work on August 19.According to him, Geddanna also transferred a cook, Veerabahu, at his residence to Narsipatnam in the district on the same day _ August 19. Venkateswara Rao approached the Class IV Employees Union which lodged a complaint with the High Court stating that Venkateswara Rao was sacked unjustly. Some Class-IV women employees of the district court also attended the inquiry and accused Geddanna of harassing them mentally for the past few months. He transferred many Class-IV employees for no reason, they alleged.