Kolkata: Kolkata Police DCP Indira Mukherjee, who is heading a special inquiry team (SIT) probing sexual abuse charges against Bengal governor CV Ananda Bose brought by a former Raj Bhavan staffer, will be awarded a police medal.
CM Mamata Banerjee usually hands over such medals at the annual Independence Day programme held on Red Road in Kolkata. Mukherjee is among four IPS officers picked by the Mamata-led TMC govt for the honour.
The molestation charges against Bose are one of the several flashpoints over which he has clashed with the state govt, with CM on one occasion declaring she would not visit Raj Bhavan again while expressing willingness to meet the governor “on the street outside”.
Bose had earlier demanded that the Union home ministry (MHA) act against Mukherjee and Kolkata police commissioner Vineet Goyal for probing the charges against him despite his constitutional immunity. The MHA, though, had left the issue with the state.
Bose had claimed that the molestation complaint of May 2 this year was engineered and Kolkata Police had played the role of facilitator. But the MHA officers had said the Centre could take any disciplinary action against IPS officers, only the state where they were based could.
TMC had protested the action by governor in overstepping his constitutional brief. Calcutta HC later paused the probe pending an appeal by other Raj Bhavan staffers implicated in the case.
