India's Pachauri barred from travel for water summit

NEW DELHI (AFP) - An Indian court Thursday barred Rajendra Pachauri, who resigned as head of the UN climate panel in February facing alleged sexual harassment charges, from travelling abroad for a water conference.

The Delhi High Court denied the 74-year-old permission to leave the country pending a police investigation after a researcher at his New Delhi research institute accused him of sexual harassment - an allegation he denies.

Pachauri was listed as a speaker for the Global Water Summit being held in Greece on April 27-28.

Judge S.P. Garg said the veteran climate change expert already faced a ban on leaving the country.

"The trial court has already imposed certain conditions on the petitioner (Pachauri) that he should not go abroad till the pendency of trial," the court said, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.

"Let the summit go on in his absence."

Pachauri, a leading voice on the dangers of global warming, was chairman of the Nobel Prize-winning United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) until he stood down in February.

He has also been barred during the investigation from entering the offices of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), which he heads.

A 29-year-old researcher, who has not been named, accused him of repeatedly harassing her through inappropriate e-mails, text and WhatsApp messages.

Pachauri has said his e-mails and mobile phone were hacked.

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