A Raj Bhavan employee has filed a complaint of molestation against Bengal governor C V Ananda Bose. The woman, according to Raj Bhavan insiders, works in the telephone room and stays at the residential quarters on the campus. She first went to the Raj Bhavan police outpost, from where she was taken to Hare Street police station.
The governor issued a statement a couple of hours later, saying he would not be “cowed down by engineered narratives”.
The woman’s complaint to cops mentions two incidents. It says that Bose asked her on April 19 to meet him with her CV. She went to meet him on April 24 at 12.45 pm, when he “touched her inappropriately and made untoward advances”, the complaint says.
According to the complaint, the governor again called her to his office but the woman, instead of going alone, asked her supervisor to accompany her. The woman told cops that Bose asked the supervisor to leave after some time, following which he assured her of a promotion and then “touched her cheek”, prompting her to protest.
A video in circulation shows the woman complaining to a senior cop that she had been molested. “This is not the first time that this has happened to me,” she was heard saying on phone before explaining why she had not complained earlier: “I had kept quiet as I was scared of losing my (contractual) job.” She said she felt impelled to complain after the latest incident to protect others from facing the ordeal she had faced. She is also seen referring to another woman who made similar complaints in the past. Senior cops said that they had recorded the woman’s statement but did not register any FIR.
Gag order
Meanwhile, the governor has cited his constitutional immunity from criminal proceedings and issued a blanket order on Raj Bhavan staff, asking them to “ignore any communication from police” and barring them from issuing statements in any form. This prompted the survivor to question why the governor was “hiding behind a shield of immunity”, and why he was “so scared” and not allowing the investigation to proceed
