A top BCCI official on Saturday (October 20) said that the claims of sexual harassment against Rahul Johri should have been investigated by an independent panel after the Board CEO failed to respond to the charge on time.

As per a report in PTI, neither the Committee of Administrators (CoA) chief Vinod Rai nor the BCCI Internal Complaints Committee member, advocate Karina Kriplani, confirmed whether Johri has submitted his reply or asked for more time at the end of the allotted seven days.

“This is a legal matter and I won’t comment on this,” Kriplani told PTI when asked if her committee will be questioning Johri on this issue.

Until now, two senior BCCI officials have questioned CoA’s role, saying that the progression on this matter is not transparent at all.

“I would like to know why the CoA is not maintaining transparency in its probe. These are serious allegations and an independent body should have been appointed by CoA for an impartial probe,” a senior office-bearer told PTI.

“Why should we as well as a lot of BCCI employees believe in the CoA probe? Johri has been reporting to CoA and it was only fair that they should have recused themselves from the probe.

“The CoA is violating the basic principles of transparency that Lodha Panel wanted BCCI to follow,” he added.

Another office-bearer said the CoA had earlier mishandled an internal case of alleged wrongdoing against Johri filed by a female employee.

“We have so many female employees and a robust women’s cricket system. If we let an alleged predator scot-free, will it be setting a good example,” asked the official.

“A powerful union minister (M J Akbar) had to resign in the wake of #MeToo storm. The only fair thing would be that Johri resigns to allow an impartial probe,” he added.

(With PTI inputs)