West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose, who is furious against allegation of sexual harassment by a Raj Bhavan staffer and ordered no police should be allowed into Raj Bhavan premises for probe into allegations and also directed no staff member need not give any `evidence’ into this incident, is now facing another similar allegation.
Even before dust not cleared on this allegation, the city police have submitted a report to the Bengal home secretary on allegations of sexual harassment made by another woman against governor Ananda Bose. The allegation surfaced last year when the woman lodged a complaint directly with the chief minister and the police were directed to probe the claim, the police said.
However, no formal FIR has been drawn up yet. The police said this probe was not connected with the special enquiry team formed to investigate the complaint of a young Raj Bhavan staffer accusing Bose of molesting her in the governor’s house on April 24 and May 2.
A separate enquiry report on the allegations of the staffer was submitted to the city police commissioner on May 11. That report had not been forwarded to the office of the home secretary till Tuesday evening.
A senior police officer said the alleged incident with the other woman happened in Delhi in January last year. “The woman has alleged that he (governor) had promised her help with a personal problem. He sent her to Delhi and arranged her accommodation in a star hotel through one of his relatives. He himself stayed in an official accommodation. The alleged incident happened during that trip,” the officer said.
A few months later, the woman reported the matter to the chief minister, based on which the CMO sought a report from the police. However, senior officers at Lalbazar were tightlipped about the contents of the report.
Even Raj Bhavan sources are also maintaining silence towards media enquiries including text messages to the governor and emails sent to the official ID of the governor and that of his secretary, seeking their reactions on the allegations of the woman and the subsequent police report to the home secretary.
Despite two reported physical harassment allegations against Bose, the police have not been able to draw up formal charges against him because the governor enjoys constitutional immunity under Article 361 of the Constitution.
