Kolkata: West Bengal Governor Dr C.V. Ananda Bose has announced that CCTV footage connected to sexual harassment allegations against him would be shown to 100 people Thursday at 11.30 am at the Kolkata Raj Bhavan.
As part of the initiative, launched under a programme titled ‘Sach ke Saamne’, the Governor’s office has shared email IDs and contact numbers for citizens to sign up on and watch the CCTV footage at the Raj Bhavan.
“Hon’ble Governor has decided that the CCTV footage can be seen by any citizen of West Bengal — except politician Mamata Banerjee and her police for the stand they had taken, which is in public domain. The first 100 can see the footage inside Raj Bhavan,” a statement by the Governor’s office said Wednesday.
Earlier this month, a woman staffer at Raj Bhavan had accused Bose of “inappropriately touching” her — allegations the Raj Bhavan dismissed in a statement as an “engineered narrative”.
Speaking to ThePrint, the complainant had said the Governor “inappropriately touched” her and “forcefully hugged” her on 24 April and 2 May. She also alleged that she was asked not to speak about the incident.
Responding to the woman’s charges, Bose stated on social media: “If anybody wants some election benefits by maligning me, god bless them. But they cannot stop my fight against corruption and violence in Bengal.
The decision to air footage connected to the harassment allegation comes in the wake of the Kolkata Police’s stand that the Raj Bhavan was not sharing the footage — a charge that the governor has termed as “mischievous and fabricated”.
Speaking to ThePrint Wednesday, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and West Bengal minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said that the Governor should make the footage public if he has nothing to hide.
“Why is he only showing it to 100 people when there are 11 crore citizens in the state. He may post his own people and claim them to be members of the public. We do not know what he has done with the footage and with those black shades that he wears, he cannot see the world clearly,” she said.
The incident has escalated the faceoff between the Raj Bhavan and Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool government in West Bengal amid the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
Bose, who took charge as Governor in November 2022, has been fighting a legal battle against the state government over the appointment of vice-chancellors in state-run universities. There has also been dispute over passage of pending bills, of which a few have been given the Raj Bhavan’s assent.
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‘Serious allegations’
Last Thursday, the contractual woman staffer of the Raj Bhavan submitted a written complaint regarding her allegations to the officer-in-charge, which was forwarded to the Hare Street police station.
The police were, however, unable to file an FIR and probe the allegations as the Governor is granted legal immunity under Article 361 of the Constitution which bars any criminal probe against the President of India and Governors of States while in office.
The Kolkata Police Friday began an inquiry into the case and formed a special inquiry team headed by a deputy commissioner-rank officer and comprising seven officers. The same day, the team visited Raj Bhavan and recorded the statement of the complainant. The Kolkata Police also served notices to a few staffers of Raj Bhavan and had sought CCTV footage in connection with the allegations.
On Sunday, a statement was issued from Kerala, the Governor’s hometown, directing all staff members of the Raj Bhavan to “ignore” any communication from the Kolkata Police in person, over the phone, online or offline.
The statement from the Governor read: “Since the Governor has been granted constitutional immunity from any criminal proceedings being instituted or continued against him, it logically follows that the police cannot investigate/inquire into the matter in any manner whatsoever. Thus, in view of the immunity enjoyed by the Governor, the police are constitutionally barred from carrying out any kind of preliminary inquiry, registering a First Information Report.”
The Governor also issued an order banning the entry of Bhattacharya into the Raj Bhavan and said he would not participate in any function attended by her. She was among the first to react to the allegations against Bose, stating on X that “such behaviour is unbecoming of any official, especially the Head of State.”
Bhattacharya told ThePrint that the West Bengal government would continue to fight for justice for the woman staffer.
“The legal immunity the Governor is talking about is only two clauses from Article 361. If one reads the entire Article, the Governor has no legal cover for molesting a woman. Even the president of the country can be impeached. This is not an allegation being made by the Trinamool Congress. A woman has made serious allegations against the Governor, and he needs to come clean.”
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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