12 women from abroad move HC against Gundecha brothers

Jabalpur/Bhopal: Twelve women from abroad have filed an intervening application in the Madhya Pradesh High Court's principal bench in Jabalpur, seeking action against the Gundecha brothers of Bhopal-based Dhrupad Sansthan over allegations of sexual harassment against them.

Those who have filed the intervening applications (IAs) the previous day were once students of the Dhrupad Sansthan, who are now in the United States, Sweden, Canada, Poland, Spain, Austria and Germany.

The complainants, too, have alleged that they were sexually harassed by the famous Gundecha siblings the late Ramakant Gundecha, Umakant Gundecha and Akhilesh Gundecha, who plays pakhawaj, the women's counsel Dhruv Varma told.

The IA has been filed in support of an inquiry report of an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC), which investigated the sexual harassment allegations against the Gundechas of the Dhrupad Sansthan, a UNESCO-accredited institution after the accusations surfaced on social media in 2020, he said.

The Dhrupad Sansthan had set up the Internal Complaints Committee on September 5, 2020, to probe into allegations of sexual misconduct levelled against the Gundecha brothers on social media by a group known as 'Dhrupad Family Europe', Varma said.

The panel heard the complaints and subsequently gave its report on February 23, 2021, with certain adverse remarks and recommendations against the Gundecha brothers, he added.