Journalist Pavan Korada. Illustration by Siasat.com.
Journalist Pavan Korada had built a strong reputation over the years. Covering Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and beyond, and contributing to several prominent news organisations, including, most recently, The Wire, Korada also made his name in activist and civil society circles, positioning himself as an advocate for progressive politics and an ally of marginalised communities.
That reputation now stands in sharp contrast to the allegations being raised against him.
Multiple women across cities have accused Korada of sexual coercion and abuse, violations of informed consent, financial exploitation, intimidation and emotional manipulation. The women requested anonymity, citing fear of social repercussions, retaliation and the personal consequences of going on record. Their names have been changed to protect their identities.
Two organisations have publicly severed ties with him: the Human Rights Forum (HRF), a civil liberties organisation with which he had a long-standing informal association, and the Indian School of Democracy (ISD), where he worked as a full-time team member between August 2023 and June 2024. According to the women, The Wire also ended his employment on April 30, for the same reasons.
Four women shared their accounts with Siasat.com, along with a former associate whose account supported several aspects of their allegations.
While individual accounts varied in detail and gravity, certain patterns surfaced repeatedly. Several women described violations of informed consent involving deception in intimate relationships that left them with lasting concerns about their physical and sexual health, and a sense that their sexual agency had been undermined.
One woman, referred to here as Anjali, told Siasat.com, “About having unprotected sex without informing [of sexual relations with other women at the same time], I feel that if I was aware, I would have never given [consent]. Because the consent wasn’t real, it was given under misrepresentation.”
Anjali said she developed a “massive UTI” while in an intimate relationship with Korada, which she attributed to his undisclosed sexual activity with other women. When she told him she was taking antibiotics, she said: “he didn’t give a f**k.”
Anjali also described his manner as “hypermasculine.”
Another woman, referred to as Avni, said she discovered in hindsight that Korada was simultaneously involved with multiple women while in a relationship with her, and that he insisted on unprotected sex without disclosing those concurrent relationships.
Siasat.com reviewed a collective statement titled “Women harmed by Pavan Korada,” submitted by multiple women to The Wire. The statement detailed a sustained pattern of harmful conduct spanning at least 2018 to the present.
A third woman, referred to as Radhika, described intimidation following attempts to raise concerns about Korada’s conduct — including aggressive behaviour, physical intimidation, sexual insinuation and verbal threats. She also described misogynistic conduct such as degrading and objectifying remarks about women in activist, journalistic and social spaces, including slut-shaming, body shaming and openly sexualising women acquaintances while disparaging them in private.
Similar accounts, along with allegations of financial exploitation, were also detailed in the collective statement.
In India, caste identity carries legal and social significance tied to histories of systemic discrimination and affirmative action. It is against this backdrop that the women raised concerns about Korada’s statements and behaviour relating to caste.
They alleged two distinct patterns. First, inconsistent and contradictory claims about his own caste identity — telling some women he belonged to the Dalit community while telling others he was a Yadav. Second, they alleged he weaponised his caste position against Savarna women, using it to escape accountability and frame their responses as stemming from caste privilege rather than anything he had done.
“Of course, we all know of him as a Yadav from the BC community,” Avni said. Radhika said Korada uses his caste position to “guilt-trip” women, attributing every failed relationship to caste and never to his own conduct.
Taken together, the accounts reviewed by Siasat.com pointed to a pattern of differing caste representations across cities and political circles.
A fourth woman, referred to as Priya, said his approach was to personally attack anyone who is Savarna.
“He weaponises his non-Savarna position and trains that against every Savarna woman that he meets, or rather any Savarna person he meets. This is non-conforming to any gender,” she said, adding that she herself had experienced such attacks from him.
In the collective statement to The Wire, the women wrote, “While we do not make a definitive claim about his caste identity, we note the inconsistency to underline multiple women’s accounts in which his caste identity was invoked to shape narratives — framing accountability as a ‘victimhood complex’ tied to caste, and dismissing women’s engagement with questions of caste and oppression as performative… These accounts raise concerns about the instrumental use of social identity to deflect accountability, exert moral pressure, and undermine women’s agency.”
The women noted they are deeply caste-sensitive — and that this awareness is precisely why many doubted themselves and extended Korada the benefit of the doubt. They raised this, they said, to preempt any attempt to dismiss their concerns as reflective of caste bias.
A recurring element across accounts was the dissonance between Korada’s public persona and the behaviour women said they experienced. His positioning as a progressive ally made it easier for him to gain trust, the women said, and the conduct they described stood in stark contrast to the values he projected — behaviour they characterised as manipulative, vindictive and deceptive.
Women said that when confronted, Korada would attribute his actions to poor mental health, including childhood trauma. The collective statement noted: “He frequently presented himself as depressed and as someone who believed the world was ‘out to get him,’ narratives that often led women to excuse, minimise, or rationalise harmful behaviour.”
Reflecting on how some men leverage progressive politics as cover, Radhika said, “It’s particularly dangerous when men in liberal and progressive spaces use their progressive political standing to win trust, build empathic connections and allyship, and then use that same goodwill to exploit these spaces… I feel men have repeatedly weaponised a particular positioning where they can be an ally, say the right kind of things, and in their personal lives end up doing so much s**t and are basically so dangerous. He should not get that platform.”
Siasat.com reviewed documentary material shared by the women to support their accounts, but could not independently authenticate them.
A former associate and friend of Korada told Siasat.com, on the condition of anonymity, that they had met four women personally and heard their accounts, and had decided to end their friendship with Korada after witnessing the behaviour.
“What was problematic to me was being abusive, verbally and physically. That was really a threshold for me,” the witness said. “He is a very aware, well-read person. Claims to be an Ambedkarite and talks about equality and feminism. Doing this kind of a thing is really condemnable.”
The witness said Korada targeted women who were “well read” and used the “right language,” but did not live by the values he preached. They also said he shared personal details about women, including their sexual preferences, in a derogatory manner to inflate his own ego, and made misogynistic, “very problematic” remarks about women — “you know, how men would talk,” the witness said.
The collective statement also detailed allegations that Korada made claims about his level of involvement with HRF and about being targeted by investigative agencies.
The women alleged that Korada claimed his residence had been raided by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) twice, most recently around October 2023, in connection with action against members of HRF, and that books had been taken from his home during these raids.
Additionally, they alleged that he claimed to a select group in Delhi that he had participated in fact-finding missions as part of HRF, including in Kashmir. However, HRF’s own public statement referred to “the distortion of facts in personal and professional domains, such as false claims concerning State action against him in order to inflate his standing in political spaces.”
According to the women, The Wire received the collective statement on April 30 and severed ties with Korada, with the concerns raised communicated to him during the process that led to the termination.
The allegations entered the public domain on May 5, when the Andhra Pradesh State Committee of the HRF issued a statement saying at least eight women had directly shared their experiences spanning 2018 to the present, and that “the actual number of those affected was likely higher.” HRF described “a sustained and disturbing pattern of sexual coercion and abuse, physical intimidation, emotional manipulation, serial dishonesty, financial exploitation and deliberate retaliation.”
HRF announced that any association with Korada, formal or informal, had ceased with immediate effect.
A day later, on May 6, ISD issued its own statement saying the accounts it received raised “significant concerns regarding professional ethics, interpersonal conduct and the safety of those he engaged with,” and that it had decided to formally dissociate from him.
Siasat.com reached out to The Wire for comment; no response was received by the time of publication. Korada was also contacted and did not respond. Should he do so, his statement will be added to this report.
The women who spoke to this publication said they hoped their accounts would prevent others from experiencing similar harm, not only to protect women, but to ensure accountability in political and activist spaces.
“These people should be represented for what they are,” said Radhika.
This post was last modified on June 22, 2026 8:14 am