Sexual Harassment Charges against West Bengal Governor: Raj-Bhavan Shows CCTV Footage to Public
NEW DELHI, May 9: The Raj-Bhavan in Kolkata on Thursday showed to some public CCTV footage of the premises covering the period during which the West Bengal governor CV Ananda Bose was alleged to have “touched inappropriately” a woman contractual employee of the governor’s house.
The Raj Bhavan released the hour-and-19-minute CCTV footage from May 2, when the woman alleged she was touched inappropriately by the Bengal Governor.
This comes a day after Raj Bhawan announced that CCTV footage of the premises will be shown on Thursday morning, which any citizen of West Bengal except “politician” Mamata Banerjee and “her police” could register to watch.
The footage shown by Raj Bhavan authorities on Thursday included recordings from two cameras in front of the North Gate from May 2 — the first clip is from 5.31 pm to 5.42 pm, the second footage from 5.32 pm to 6.32 pm, and the third one runs from 6.32 pm to 6.41 pm.
In this clip, the woman who has lodged a police complaint against the governor can also be seen. The same clip at the same time was recorded on two cameras. Around 5.32 pm, the first camera shows the woman walking out of the Raj Bhavan towards the room of the officer-in-charge from the front. In the second camera, she is seen going towards the officer-in-charge’s room from the back.
While the woman stated in her police complaint, referring to two meetings, one on April 24 and May 2, that the Bengal Governor “touched her” in the conference room on the second day, no CCTV footage from inside the Raj Bhavan was shown. The Governor was also not seen in any of the CCTV footage.
According to Raj Bhavan sources, 75 people called and registered to watch the footage. Apart from the calls, many also enrolled through email.
Reacting to the video, Bengal Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said, “What was there in the footage is what we already know. It shows the woman entering the Raj Bhawan and then she goes to the OC room and this is exactly what the woman said. The video corroborates her statement. Nothing else.”
After the allegations of molestation came to light, Governor Bose said the charges were “engineered narratives” and criticised Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress (TMC). Bose also wrote to the Raj Bhavan employees last Sunday, asking them to ignore any communication from the police on the matter. No criminal proceedings can be instituted against the Governor during his term of office, as per the Constitution, he told them. Under Article 361 of the Constitution, no criminal proceedings can be instituted against a Governor during his term in office.
The Kolkata police, which have formed an eight-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) under Indira Mukherjee, Deputy Commissioner, Central Division, asked the office-in-charge of Raj Bhavan for the video of the incident that day. They have also summoned a few of the Raj Bhavan officials and policemen posted there in connection with their investigation of the allegations. The Raj-Bhavan, however, has so far refused to co-operate.
(Manas Dasgupta)
