NEW DELHI: “I did a ‘namaskar’ and touched his feet and had turned around when he grabbed me from behind,” the
Raj Bhavan
employee who complained of being molested by
Bengal governor
CV
Ananda Bose
told news channels Friday. A contractual worker, she claimed she had been called to Bose’s chamber to discuss a better job, and didn’t have the courage to lodge a complaint as he had asked her not to tell anyone about the interactions, report Tamaghna Banerjee & Dwaipayan Ghosh.
Raj Bhavan did not immediately react to the
fresh accusations
, and texts sent to Bose by TOI seeking a response went unanswered. The governor, who left for Kochi, had earlier said he would fight the “false and filthy narratives engineered for character assassination with a political motive”.
The woman said she first faced inappropriate advances the first time on between 11.30am and 12noon on April 24. “The
governor
had called me to his room with my CV. The ADC asked me to sit on the chair opposite to him but after the ADC left, he asked me to sit next to him. He asked about my salary and qualification and said he had connections at different universities and could offer me the position of a teacher, but I said I wasn’t confident about the job. He also asked me if I was married. After the interaction he extended his arm for a handshake. I did a namaskar and touched his feet. He then asked me to write my phone number behind the CV and while I was doing so he grabbed me from behind. I pushed him aside and ran out of the room,” the woman told TV channels over phone.
She said she didn’t have the courage to lodge a complaint as the governor had asked her not to tell anyone about the interaction. She only told her parents about the incident. When she was called to Bose’s chamber again on May 2, she allegedly faced similar advances.
“On May 2, I was on evening shift when the governor called on the board landline number and asked me to come to the chamber. I asked my supervisor to accompany me. But after my supervisor left, he again said he would get me a permanent job at a university. When I denied the job offer, he asked what was bothering me. I was preparing to leave when he asked if someone would be there at the office on Saturday when he would call me again to discuss something confidential,” she said.
Meanwhile, Kolkata Police on Friday said they entered the Raj Bhavan to carry out a “preliminary inquiry” into the allegations by the Raj Bhavan employee. Kolkata Police has also formed an eight-member special inquiry team (SIT) headed by DCP (central) Indira Mukherjee to probe the case.
The governor had issued a statement on Thursday night prohibiting cops on the Raj Bhavan premises. The statement read, “Hon’ble Governor also banned entry of police to Raj Bhavan premises in the guise of conducting unauthorised, illegitimate, sham and motivated ‘investigation’ to placate political bosses during elections.”
The team that reached Raj Bhavan spoke to a few employees on Friday, reportedly those “who were present near the complainant just before and after the alleged incident” to ascertain the chain of events, confirmed a senior officer.
“We have not sought any appointment on this issue. We have not even asked anyone for any statement on his behalf. The question of FIR or a formal complaint, thus, does not arise. Since this is an allegation involving someone working at a high security zone, we wanted to know if anyone was aware of her complaint,” said a senior officer.
