Sexual Harassment Complaint: Bengal Governor Directs Raj Bhavan Staff to Ignore Communications from Police

KOLKATA:
West Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose on Sunday directed the staff members, temporary or permanent, of Raj Bhavan in Kolkata to ignore any communication from the state police in connection with the recent complaint of outraging a woman’s modesty filed against him by a temporary staffer.

In a notification shared on the X handle of Raj Bhavan, the staff members have also been directed to “refrain from giving any statement online, offline, in person, over phone or any other manner”.

It specifically mentions that under Article 361 (2) and (3) of the Constitution, the state police cannot act in any manner to investigate any proceedings against a Governor during his term in office.

The notification comes in the wake of the development that a special investigation team (SIT) of Kolkata Police, formed to probe the alleged accusations against the Governor, has sought CCTV footage of the Raj Bhavan.

The Kolkata Police sought the footage from the officer-in-charge of the police outpost within the Raj Bhavan on Saturday. It has also transpired that the SIT will also speak to witnesses on the basis of the complaint.

The Governor, since the beginning of the controversy, had vehemently denied the accusations floated against him.

On Friday, a day after the police complaint was filed by the woman staffer, the Governor issued an audio message, claiming that one more person had been planted at Raj Bhavan “with sinister intent by certain political forces”.

He also claimed that the matter was being verified by the agencies concerned and that “these were just election ploys”.

In the audio message, the Governor also asked the staff at Raj Bhavan to be cautious.