How I was sexually harassed and assaulted by Soli Sorabjee when he was Attorney General for India

I worked for Soli Sorabjee in 2000 and 2001 and he sexually harassed me by unwanted touching and unwelcome conversation which he is known to indulge in with most women. But one day he invited me for dinner at his Niti Bagh home on the pretext of work and he got me drunk and then assaulted me, forcibly kissed me, and stuck his tongue in my mouth. I managed to extricate myself and leave. Soli Sorabjee continued to hound me with unwelcome contact after that which I avoided for some years. I was overseas for a while and eventually got over my anger and was able to interact with Sorabjee as if he was a dirty old man whose overtures should just be ignored. I was by then strong and confident enough to maintain a certain space in our future interactions. Sorabjee was ugly, shriveled and over 70 when he assaulted me as a woman then in her late twenties.

I have written about what happened on my blog at http://solisorabjeealert.blogspot.in/. This complaint is still un-redressed.

I worked with Soli J Sorabjee in 2000-2001 when he was Attorney General for India. In fact, I decided to work with Soli Sorabjee (who was at that time the Attorney General) on the recommendation and suggestion of Raian Karanjawala. I was sexually harassed by Soli Sorabjee when I worked with him. The harassment started with Sorabjee touching me seemingly innocently and then progressed to situations where he would hold my hand. Sorabjee was already quite old (over 70 years) when I started working with him therefore initially I was too embarrassed to say anything. But the situation became very uncomfortable. Sorabjee would grasp my hand in front of other staff and colleagues as soon as the group reached the second floor of the Supreme Court building (where the Attorney General has his office) from the first floor where the courts are located. I found this very uncomfortable but refrained from saying anything or withdrawing my hand at the risk of offending Sorabjee. I was worried that Sorabjee's acts could still be passed off as those of an affectionate older person towards a young junior lawyer. After sometime, the harassment progressed and Sorabjee started asking me to come to his Motilal Nehru Marg official residence and to his Niti Bagh residence ostensibly for work both in the afternoons and sometimes late in the evening. (Mr Sorabjee would specify for instance that I not arrive before 7 or 8 pm in the evening). During these visits, Soli Sorabjee would pretend to be working on a sofa sometimes in his study at Niti Bagh but occasionally in his bedrooms at Niti Bagh and at Motilal Nehru Marg. I would be asked to sit on the sofa with him. During these interactions between discussions of work, Sorabjee would lean over and touch my head, legs and arms etc. He would sometimes lean over to put his arms around me and the embrace would get extended with Sorabjee engaging in prolonged rubbing of his cheeks against my face etc. I was very uncomfortable with all this but since I knew that I was soon leaving India for further studies, and since I apprehended that my raising the issue would result in dismissal of my complaints in the absence of proof as to the nature of these interactions, I said nothing. I did try and maintain as much distance as possible, always trying to keep the conversation focused on work and to avoid saying or doing anything to convey the impression that I welcomed/ condoned these advances.

On one particular evening, Sorabjee invited me to his Niti Bagh residence in the evening around 7.30/ 8 pm on the pretext of some work. Sorabjee was sitting in his study and asked me to sit with him on the sofa, Sorabjee asked me to join him for dinner and offered me wine. I consumed 2-3 glasses of wine with Sorabjee regularly topping up my glass without asking me. After sometime, Sorabjee was sitting very close to me. He said something affectionate and then suddenly embraced me. I waited for Sorabjee to release me, when suddenly I found that Sorabjee was kissing me on my mouth and almost immediately he inserted his tongue into my mouth. I started saying that I had to leave and tried to gently push Sorabjee away. At this Sorabjee withdrew. I then told him that it was late and I had a long drive back home and I hurriedly left.

The next time I saw Sorabjee, I tried to maintain a calm, composed and stern/ distant manner. Sorabjee was even on that occasion sitting in his study at Neeti Bagh, but it was daytime and there were several persons around outside his study and in his office. I did not bring up what had happened but Sorabjee opened his hand and handed an ear-ring back to me telling me that I had lost it the other evening. I said yes that it had probably fallen off on the sofa. Sorabjee stated that his male domestic help had found the ear-ring under the bed in Sorabjee's bedroom. I knew that the ear-ring did not fall off under the bed because my encounter with Sorabjee took place on the sofa in the study. Yet I refrained from replying. I perceived Mr Soli Sorabjee's lie about the ear-ring having been found in the bedroom by his male domestic help as a threatening statement being made to me. I recall that I was apprehensive that this male domestic help might talk about having found my ear-ring in Sorabjee's bedroom to the other office staff and that word of this would leak out and that persons hearing this would conclude that I had sex with Sorabjee in his bedroom. For this and other reasons, I kept quiet and did not raise the issue with Sorabjee, nor did I mention this to anyone else. I left myposition with Sorabjee soon after this and I left for the United Kingdom in September 2001. Sorabjee made several calls on my phone in the UK, but I recall feeling anger and not wishing to interact with Sorabjee, and initially I did not answer these persistent calls. Eventually my anger subsided and having spent nearly 7 years overseas, I was able to put the episode with Soli Sorabjee behind me and was able to interact with him on a casual basis. I recall that during one of my short trips to India when I was living overseas, I was told by Mr Raian Karanjawala that Soli Sorabjee was "upset" that I had not kept in touch with the latter. In my future dealings with Sorabjee, I always felt empowered and in control of the situation to be able to draw the boundaries of any interaction firmly. After the incident in Soli Sorabjee's house, I took the decision that I did not want this sexual harassment to affect or influence my life in any manner. Accordingly I did not mention this harassment to anyone including to my family until 2011.