Lands Minister, Ashneel Sudhakar has been asked to resign as a Member of Parliament in relation to allegations of sexual harassment, however he does not want to take that step so the FijiFirst will conduct a disciplinary hearing against him.
FijiFirst General Secretary, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has confirmed to Fijivillage that the party received some complaints, a statutory declaration and also received other allegations against Sudhakar.
Sayed-Khaiyum says the allegations are extremely serious and will not be condoned as the FijiFirst has a good track record in terms of women’s empowerment and also focuses on ensuring that it creates a good working environment for women working as professionals.
He says the disciplinary hearing process will commence in the next few days.
Sayed-Khaiyum says it would have been in the best interest of the Minister and the party, for the Minister to resign as the allegations are very serious.
When contacted by Fijivillage, Land Minister Ashneel Sudhakar maintained that he has done nothing wrong and will face the party’s disciplinary hearing.
Sudhakar says all the allegations in the social media about him are false and he never facebook messaged any woman saying he wanted her to go out for drinks, to get picked up by a government vehicle and that he is a Minister and riding with him would get her far ahead and life is short, she should break the rules sometimes.
He also claims it is a set up as he has been investigating some files in the Lands Ministry.
Sudhakar also says he has full viber messages with the woman until February 19th however she has deleted her messages after she filed the complaint.
Sudhakar says he has nothing to hide and will not resign from parliament.
He says he has not been informed of the disciplinary hearing and will wait for the FijiFirst General Secretary to advise him on the next step.
