Court raps police, orders probe into Hero Future Energies CEO in harassment case

New Delhi,UPDATED: Apr 21, 2026 07:23 IST

A Delhi court has rapped the Delhi Police over an alleged improper investigation into allegations of sexual harassment against the CEO and a senior office-bearer of Hero Future Energies Ltd.

In an order passed on April 17, which has been accessed by India Today, Mahila Court Magistrate Neetika Kapoor directed the ACP of South Delhi district to monitor the investigation and ensure that the persons named by the complainant are probed.

The order also includes directions to interrogate Hero Future Energies CEO Shri Vatsan Iyer by the next date of hearing in May.

Hero Future Energies is a global renewable energy company and is part of the well-known Hero Group of companies.

The case relates to the alleged sexual harassment of a woman employee by Mayur Maheshwari, who is named as “Global Compliance Officer and Company Secretary,” according to his online profile accessed by India Today.

After the complaint was sent to the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) of the company, instead of strict action against the accused, the matter was sought to be dismissed after a written warning to Maheshwari.

The complainant then took the issue to the CEO, Shrivatsan Iyer, but was allegedly subjected to further sexual harassment and intimidation.

During the hearing, advocate Apoorva Pandey, appearing for the survivor, pointed out that the FIR against CEO Shrivatsan Iyer and Mayur Maheshwari was registered after multiple complaints. Despite the FIR for sexual harassment under Sections 75, 78, and 3(5) of the BNS, the police failed to investigate the CEO and other senior company officials.

A statement on behalf of the survivor also states that she has moved a complaint before the industrial tribunal, as she had been locked out of her official email and feared that she would be terminated from employment.

After the interim order for employment protection from the industrial tribunal in March, the survivor also gave an additional statement to the police regarding the involvement of the CEO.

However, no steps were taken in the investigation, the additional information was not added to the FIR, and the name of the accused mentioned in the FIR remained “unknown.” Due to this, the survivor moved an application seeking monitoring of the investigation, which was heard before the court of Judicial Magistrate First Class (Mahila Court), Neetika Kapoor.

In its order, the court took note of the status report filed by the police, which admitted that while Maheshwari had joined the investigation, the CEO had “left the country,” and no investigation had been carried out regarding his role so far.

The court has now directed the concerned ACP to monitor the investigation, ensure that the persons named as witnesses by the survivor are questioned, and interrogate CEO Shrivatsan Iyer by the next date of hearing in May. The court has also called for a status report on the investigation.

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